4 



CONTRIBUTIONS 



TO THE 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST, 



INCLUDING THE 



MOKAVIAN MISSIONS- IN OHIO. 



v/ 

SAMUEL P. HILDRETH, M. D. 



CINCINNATI: 
PUBLISHED BY POE & HITCnCOCK. 

R. P. THOMPSON, PRINTER. 
^1864. , 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, 
BY POE & UTTCHCOCK, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern 
District of Ohio. 



(lt-''^J 



7 Vii 



ADVEHTISEMENT, 



The following sketches of pioneer life anJ 
times were written by the late Samuel P. Hil- 
cketh, M. D., and by him given some years 
since to Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, first Con- 
troller of the Treasury. On Mr. Whittlesey's 
death they came by bequest into the possession 
of T. B. Tait, of Ashtabula county, Ohio, by 
whom they were sent to our Agents for pub- 
lication. They relate mainly to scenes and 
incidents in North-Eastern Ohio, and include 
a brief account of the Moravian Mission. 

The author, Dr. Hildreth, was himself a pio- 
neer and the historian of pioneers. He was a 
native of Mcthuen, Essex county, Massachu- 
setts. In 180G he commenced the practice of 

medicine at Marietta, when the place contained 

3 



4 ADVERTISEMENT. 

but six hundred inhabitants, and continued it 
fifty-five years. In 1861, as he said, "I laid 
it entirely aside, and am now waiting the time 
of my departure with resignation and hope." 
He died at his home in Marietta, July 28, 
1863, aged eighty years. 

The reader will find these pages entertaining 
and instructive. Sonte of the events recorded 
have occurred within the life-time and memory 
of those yet living, and a few of the actors 
or witnesses of these scenes still survive. One 
of them, Joseph Kelly, died since these pages 
were in the printers' hands. A daughter of the 
missionary Heckewelder yet lives in Pennsyl- 
vania, having reached a ripe old age. Doubtless 
others whose stories are given, are yet with us; 
but one by one the aged pioneers, are passing 
away, and we welcome this volume to perpetuate 
their names and deeds to those who enjoy the 

fruit of their labors. 

The Editor. 
Cincinnati, August, 1864. 



PREFACE 



On the appearance of a new book before the 
public every reader has the right to inquire the 
object of the writer in presenting it. In this 
instance the author's only plea is the desire 
of preserving from utter loss a few of the 
many interesting events connected with the 
early history of this country, which in a few 
brief years would have been entirely forgotten. 
They are at present tolerably fresh in the 
memories of some of the actors themselves, 
but are fast fading away before the touch of 
time. Another object was to compare past 
things with present, and thus better enable 
the generation of these days to appreciate the 
trials and sufferings of those who inhabited this 
now beautiful land when it was covered witli 



6 PREFACE. 

vast forests, and tenanted by savages and wild 
beasts. The achievements of these men ought 
not soon to be forgotten. And last, not least, 
was a desire to bring to the light the trials 
and sufferings of the Moravian missionaries and 
their Indian converts in Ohio. Very few of 
the present inhabitants even know that such 
a mission ever existed, and still fewer are ac- 
quainted with the particular events connected 
therewith. Copious extracts have been taken 
from Loskiel's history, to whom I am indebted 
for the facts relating to the mission, and many 
of them in his own language. 

With these brief remarks the following pages 
are presented to the rising generations of the 
West, accompanied with the wish that they 
may afford to them as much satisfaction in the 
reading as they have to me in the writing. 



CONTENTS. 
\ '■> 



CHAPTER I. 

SUMMER RAMBLINGS. 

PAOC. 

1. Facts Gathered 15 

2. A Vexerable Pioneer 16 

3. A Story of Olden Times i 21 

CHAPTER II. 
LEWIS WETZEL. 

1. Early Training 24 

2. A Singular Encounter 26 

3. Recognition and Reconciliation 29 

4. Telling a Savage by his Tracks 30 

5. Theory Tested 30 

6. The Pursuit 32 

7. The Enemy Overtaken 33 

8. Skillful and Successful Attack 34 

9. Death op Wetzel 36 

CHAPTER III. 
BORDER SETTLEMENTS. 

1. Old Fort M'Intosh 37 

2. Brady's Hill 40 

7 



» CONTENTS. 

3. Trapping Excursion *. 43 

4. New Connecticut 46 

5. Ravenna 48 

6. Brady's Pond 49 

7. Brady's Leap 50 

CHAPTER IV. 
INCIDENTS ON THE BORDER. 

1. Falls op the Cuyahoga 56 

2. Indian Fisheries 58 

3. Joseph Kelly, or the Lost Son 59 

4. Treaty ■with the Indians 67 

5. Indian Tact 68 

6. Cuyahoga Falls 70 

7. Tuscarawas 71 

8. Fort Laurens 71 

9. Siege of Fort Laurens 73 

10. Relief of the Garrison 73 

CHAPTER V. 

THE MORAVIAN MISSIONS IN OHIO. 

1. Schoenbrunn and the Moravian Missionaries 76 

2. Missionary Enterprise 77 

3. John Heckewelder 80 

4. Epidemic Disease 81 

5. Migrations of the Christian Indians 82 

6. Loskiel's Narrative 83 

7. Incidents on the Route -. 86 



CONTENTS. 9 

PASS. 

8. LlVINQ ASHKS 88 

9. Removal to Gnadenhutten 89 

10. Proceedings of 1774 91 

11. Relief Obtained 9-4 

12. Transactions of 1775 9-4 

13. A New Town Built by the Delawares 95 

14. Transactions op 1776 96 

15. New Station Established 96 

16. Indian Baptism 98 

CHAPTER VI. 
THE MORAVIAN MISSIONS — CONTINUED. 

1. Transactions of 1777 100 

2. Trials OF THE Missionaries 101 

3. SCHOENBRUNN ABANDONED 102 

4. The DeLA WARES CONCLUDE TO FiGUT 102 

5. Alarms of the Christian Indians 103 

6. Engagement between the Hurons and Whites 104 

7. Progress op the Mission 104 

8. Cruelty OF THE Indians 105 

9. Removal from Gnadenhutten 106 

10. Efforts OP THE British 106 

11. Preservation op the Mission 107 

12. Transactions of 1779 108 

13. Plots against THE Missionaries , 108 

14. Kindness OF Colonel Gibson 109 

15. Salem Built 110 

16. Cheering Appearance OF THE Church Ill 

17. Additional Missionaries 112 



10 CONTENTS. 



PAGB. 

18. Birth OP THE First White Child 114 

19. Transactions OP 1781 115 

20. Attack ON the Missionaries 115 

21. Interference of a Sorcerer 117 

22. Further Aggressions 118 

23. Conduct op Believing Indians 121 

24. Magnanimity OF AN Indian Female 122 

25. Exile of the Missionaries 123 

2Q. Severities op the Journey 125 

27. Sandusky Creek 126 

28. The Missionaries Ordered to Detroit 127 

29. Sufferings during the Winter 128 

CHAPTER Vll. 
THE MORAVIAN MISSIONS — CONTINUED. 

1. Visit op the Hurons 130 

2. Further Troubles op the Mission 131 

3. Massacre AT Gnadenhutten 132 

4. Departure OF the Missionaries 134 

5. Dispersion of the Christian Indians 134 

6. New Gnadenhutten 135 

7. News of Peace 138 

8. Transactions op 1784 J38 

9. Famine AT New Gnadenhutten 139 

10. Progress OF New Gnadenhutten 141 

11. Transactions OF 1785 142 

12. Ravages op the Wolves 142 

13. Proceedings at New Gnadenhutten 143 

14. The Chippewas Order Them Away 144 



CONTENTS. 11 

PAOB. 

15. Depabtdre from New Qxadenuutten 145 

16. TuE Travelers Leave Detroit 146 

17. Troubles op the Journey 147 

18. Settlement op Pilqerrah 148 

19. Remarks 148 

20. Proceedings at Pilgereah 149 

21. Depabtube op Mr. Heckewelder 150 

22. Sickness op the Missionaries 150 

23. Transactions of 1787 151 

24. Removal from Pilgereah 153 

25. Great Storm 154 

26. Fine Fish 154 

27. More Trials and Disappointments 155 

28. Removal TO Pettquotting 156 

29. Conversion op A Noted Savage 157 

30. Mission History since 1787 158 

CHAPTER VIII. 
CONTINUATION OF BORDER HISTORY. 

1. Story of Silver Heels 161 

2. Logan's Spring 167 

3. First Settlement at Marietta 170 

CHAPTER IX. 

PIONEER BIOGRAPHY. 

1. Isaac Williams 179 

2. Story op John Wetzel 183 

3. Biography Continued 187 



12 CONTENTS. 

PAOB. 

4. Famine AMONG THE Colonists 189 

5. Simple Habits 193 

6. Hamilton Keee 194 

CHAPTER X. 

LEGENDS OF BORDER HISTORY. 

1. Legend op Carpenter's Bar 199 

CHAPTER XI. 

MISCELLANEOUS SCRAPS. 

1. Description of Fort Harmar 215 

2. Escape of R. J. Meigs, Esq 220 

3. Description of Campus Martius 227 

4. Character OF THE Pioneers 232 

5. The First Preacher in Ohio 233 



CONTRIBUTIONS 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 



CONTRIBUTIONS 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST, 



CHAPTER I. 

SUMMER RAMBLINQS. 
FACTS GATHERED. 

For a number of years past it has been my 
practice, during the vernal months, to make 
rambling excursions into distant and remote 
parts of the Western settlements, for the double 
purpose of amusement and the collection of 
useful facts in relation to geology, and to the 
early history of the country. There is a fresh- 
ness and youthfulness over the face of the earth 
during this season of the year which is gratify 
ing to the senses, and highly promotive of cheer- 
fulness and kindly affections. During these 

15 



16 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

periods I have been enabled to gather up many 
interesting facts connected with the early settle- 
ment of the "near West/^ especially that por- 
tion of it lying east of the Muskingum River. 
It is only in this way that some few of "the 
thousand and one adventures," and sufferings 
of that brave and hardy race of men, who first 
settled on the western side of the AUeghanies, 
can be preserved from the oblivion to which 
they are rapidly hastening. The period of 
human life is so short, that most of the actors 
in and the cotemporaries of those events have 
already passed away; a few, however, are still 
living. 

A VENERABLE PIONEER. 

Only a few days since I saw and conversed 
with one of these venerable and aged pioneers — 
Peter Anderson — who had resided on the banks 
of the Ohio for sixty- six years, or since the 
year A. D. 1770. He was then a boy of twelve 
or fourteen years of age, and lived with his 



A VENERABLE PIONEER. 17 

parents near the Ohio River, a few miles above 
the present town of Wellsburg, in Virginia. 
At that time their nearest neighbor was ten 
miles distant, and the next nearest, thirty miles. 
The first year the family lived in a hut con- 
structed of the bark of trees, and it was only 
in the second year that a force sufficient to 
raise the walls of a log one could be collected. 
Within the life of this man what chanixes 

CD 

have passed over the face of the West, and 
that of the United States generally! We were 
then feeble colonists, and the vassals of a for- 
eign power — now a great and independent nation. 
The whole region, from Fort Pitt to the Missis- 
sippi, was covered with one continued forest, 
and the red man not only claimed the right to, 
but possessed unlimited control over this vast 
region. The canoe of the savage navigated its 
numerous and mighty rivers; the wild beasts 
of the forest tenanted the wild domain — within 
the brief life of a single individual, how vast 

the changes that have taken place ! The steam- 
2 



18 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

boat, like a Leviathan, dashing the waters from 
her bows, and causing even the earth to tremble 
on the adjacent shores as she moves, now navi- 
gates those streams over which the light barge 
of the savage once silently glided. The forests, 
then filled with the buffalo, the deer, the bear, 
and the wolf, have fallen before the ax of the 
woodman; and lowing herds and bleating flocks 
cover the fields opened to cultivation. 

Mighty cities and innumerable villages, with 
their attendant spires and piles of massive build- 
ings, now cover the ground once occupied by 
the lowly hut of the Indian; and in all this 
wide space, so lately teeming with wild game, 
from Fort Pitt to the Mississippi, the hunter 
with difficulty fii^ds a single victim for his rifle; 
and where he once lived in plenty on the spoils 
of the chase, would now starve with no other 
resource. Even the fishes, apparently so safely 
protected by the element in which they move 
from the depredation of man, have partaken of 
the general destruction of the aboriginal races, 



A VENERABLE PIONEER. 19 

and the waters, wliich in early days were filled 
and teeming with the finny tribes, are now 
nearly deserted and desolate. From a cause 
as yet unexplained, even the molluscous ani- 
mals are nearly or quite extinct in the Mus- 
kingum River, from above Zanesville to its 
mouth. In the months of May and June, ,1836, 
the river was partially covered with the floating 
bodies of clams, uniones and anadontce, that 
liad died in their oozy beds, and, as the specific 
gravity changed by incipient putrefaction, had 
risen to the surface, leaving the empty shell 
open on the bottom of the river. Some disease 
more fatal than the cholera has attacked this 
secluded race; perhaps induced by the change 
in their element, from the mixture of salt water 
and bittern, di-aining from the numerous salt 
wells on the shores of the river. Even a slight 
change in the ingredients of our atmosphere 
induces in man disease and death. 

Four millions of whites now occupy the an- 
cient domains of the savajres of the eastern 



20 EAKLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

portion of the valley of the Mississippi. How 
little the present inhabitants know or dream of 
the privations and sufferings of the pioneers of 
this fair valley ! For more than thirty years 
they lived in almost continual contests with 
the aboriginals. Every tree they felled, every 
rod they plowed, and every hour they trav- 
ersed the forest in search of game, was at 
the hazard of life and limb. If they visited 
the mill, or attended a neighboring meeting to 
hear the preaching of an itinerant minister of 
the Gospel, it was with the trusty rifle in their 
hands; and he who lay down in peace and 
apparent safety, was often awakened by the 
yell of the savage; the morning sun rose on 
the smoking ruins of his hut and the reeking 
limbs of his murdered family. But, as the old 
proverb hath it, " the back is fitted to the 
burden." These heroes were men of steel, 
whose courage no dangers could appall, and 
whose perseverance no difiiculties could ob- 
struct. Even the females were equally hardy 



A STORY OF EARLY TIMES. 21 

and gifted with fortitude fitted to the emerg- 
ency. To preserve the remembrance of these 
days from the oblivion to which they are hast- 
ening, I have recorded a few of the feats of 
individuals, whose names are only known in the 
vicinity of the spots where the events took 
place, and to a few of the descendants of the 
old inhabitants, whom the unceasing tide of 
emigration has not yet swept away to the re- 
gions of the "far West.' 

A STORY OF EARLY TIMES. 

In the month of May, in the year 1835, as 
I was ^lidin<]j alonor the smooth waters of the 
Ohio, between the town of Steubenville and the 
mouth of Beaver River, the site of old Fort 
M'Intosh, in one of those beautiful inventions 
of modern days, a steamboat, the following story 
of early times was narrated by a passenger, 
wlio received it from an old settler, intimately 
acquainted with the hero of the adventure. This 
region and the settlements at WheeUng were 



22 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

for many years the western frontier, and more 
individual prowess was displayed, and more blood 
shed, within a space of forty miles square, 
than in any other portion of the valley of the 
Ohio of equal extent. Many powerful tribes 
of savages lived On the north-west side of the 
Ohio River within a few days' march, and the 
Mingoes, a vindictive race, possesse(i the rich 
alluvion, commencing a short distance below the 
present town of Steubenville, for many miles 
along the banks of the river, till within a few 
years of this time. These lands still retain the 
name of "the Mingo Bottoms." Within this 
district the family of Logan, the celebrated 
Indian chief, were murdered in cold blood by 
a party under Captain Greathouse, at Baker's 
Bottom, opposite the mouth of Yellow Creek, 
near the upper portion or north-east extremity 
of the present State of Virginia. The particu- 
lars of this odious and much-contested transac- 
tion have been recently published, as related by 
Henry Jolly, Esq., who is so kindly and honor- 



A STORY OF EARLY TIMES. 23 

ably mentioned in some of the communications 
of Mark Bancroft to the "Calket," pubhshcd 
in Philadelphia. But I must retui*n to the 
promised narrative. 



24 EARLY HISTORY OP THE NORTH-WEST. 



CHAPTER II. 

LEWIS WETZEL.* 
EARLY TRAINING. 

Among the heroes of border warfare Lewis 
Wetzel held no inferior station. Inured to 
hardships while yet in boyhood, and educated 
in all the various arts of woodcraft — from that 
of hunting the beaver and the bear to that of 
the wily Indian — he became in manhood one 
of the most celebrated marksmen of the day. 
Ilis form was erect, and of that hight best 
adapted to activity, being very muscular and 
possessed of great bodily strength. His frame 
was warmed by a heart that never palpitated 

* This story and two others of Samuel Brady were recently 
published in the American Journal of Science; but so few 
readers have access to that work in the West that it was 
thought best to republish them here. 



* EARLY TllAININa. 25 

■with fear, and animated by a spirit that quailed 
not, nor became confused in the midst of danger 
and death. 

From constant practice he coukl bear pro- 
longed and violent exercise, especially that of 
running and ■walking, -without fatigue; and had 
also acquired the art of loading his rifle Avhen 
moving at full speed through the forests, and 
wheehng on the instant could discharge a bullet 
with unerring aim, the distance of eighty or 
one hundred yards, into a mark not larger than 
a shilhng. This art he has been known, more 
than once, to practice with success on his savage 
foes. A celebrated marksman in those days 
was estimated by the other borderers in the 
same way that a knight templar or a knight 
of the cross was valued by his cotemporaries 
who excelled in the tournament or the charge, 
in the days of chivalry. Challenges of skill 
often took place, and marksmen frequently met 
by appointment, who lived at the distance of 
lifty miles or more from each other, to try the 



26 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

accuracy of their aim, on bets of considerable 
amount. 

A SINGULAR ENCOUNTER. 

Wetzel's fame had spread far and wide 
through the adjacent settlements as the most 
expert rifleman of the day. In the Spring of 
the year A. D. 1784, it chanced that a young 
man, a few years younger than Wetzel, who 
lived on the waters of Dunkard's Creek, a 
tributary of the Monongahela River, heard of 
his fame; and as he was also an expert woods- 
man and a first-rate shot — the best in his set- 
tlement — he became very desirous of an oppor- 
tunity for a trial of skill. So great was his 
anxiety that he very early one morning shoul- 
dered his rifle, and, whistling his faithful dog to 
his side, s^tarted for the neighborhood of Wetzel, 
who then lived near the forks of Wheeling 
Creek, a distance of fifteen or twenty miles, 
although the two streams rise in the vicinity 
of each other. 



A. SINGULAR ENCOUNTER. 27 

When about half-way on his journey a fine 
buck started up just before him. He leveled 
his rifle with his usual accuracy, but the deer 
did not fall dead in his tracks, although mor- 
tally wounded. His stout dog soon seized him 
and brought him to the ground; but while in 
the act of so doing another dog sprang from 
the forest upon the same deer, and his master 
made his appearance at the same time from 
behind a tree, and with loud voice claimed the 
deer as his property; having, as he said, been 
brought down by his shot, and seized by his 
dog. 

It so happened that they had both fired at 
the same instant and at the same deer — a fact 
which may very well happen where two active 
men are hunting on the same ground, although 
one of them may fire at fifty yards and the 
other at double that distance. The dogs, feel- 
ing a similar spirit to that of their masters, 
soon quit the deer, which was already dead, 
and fell to won-ying and tearing each other. 



28 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

In separating the dogs the stranger hunter 
happened to strike that of the young man. 
The old adage, "Strike my dog, strike me," 
arose in full force; and without further cere- 
mony, except a few hasty oaths, he fell upon the 
stranger hunter and hurled him to the ground. 
This was no sooner done than he found him- 
self turned, and under his stronger and more 
powerful antagonist. 

Perceiving that he was no match at this play, 
he appealed to the trial by rifle, saying it was 
too much like dogs for men and hunters to 
fight in this manner. The stranger assented to 
the trial, but told the young man that before 
he proceeded to put it to the test he had better 
witness what he was able to do with that weapon ; 
saying that he was as much superior in the use 
of the rifle as he was in bodily strength. In 
proof, he bid him place a mark the size of a 
dollar on the side of a huge poplar that stood 
beside them, from which he would start with 
his rifle unloaded, and running a hundred yards 



RECOGNITION AND RECONCILIATION. 29 

at full speed he would load it as he ran, and, 
wheeling, discharge it instantly to the center 
of the mark. The feat was no sooner proposed 
than performed; the ball striking the center of 
the diminutive target. 

RECOGNITION AND RECONCILIATION. 

Astonished at his skill, his antagonist now 
inquired his name. "Lewis Wetzel, at your 
service," answered the stranger. Forgetting 
his animosity, the young hunter seized him by 
the hand with all the ardor of youthful admira- 
tion, and at once acknowledged his own inferi- 
ority. So charmed was he with Wetzel's frank- 
ness, skill, and fine personal appearance, that 
he insisted on his returning with him to the 
Dunkard settlement, that he might exhibit his 
dexterity to his own family, and to the hardy 
backwoodsmen, his neighbors. Nothing loth 
to such an exhibition, and pleased with the 
energy of his new acquaintance, Wetzel agreed 
to accompany him ; shortening the way with 



30 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

their mutual tales of hunting excursions, and 
hazardous contests with the common enemies 
of the country. 

TELLING AN INDIAN BY HIS TRACKS. 

Among other things, Wetzel stated his man- 
ner of distinguishing the footsteps of a white 
man from those of an Indian, although covered 
with moccasins and intermixed with the tracks 
of the savages. He had acquired this tact 
from closely examining the manner of placing 
the feet; the Indian stepping in parallel lines, 
and first bringing the toe to the ground, while 
the white man almost invariably first touches 
the heel to the earth, and places the feet at an 
angle with the line of march. 

THEORY TESTED. 

An opportunity they little expected soon 
gave him a chance of putting his skill to the 
trial. On reaching the young man's home, 
which they did late in the afternoon, they 



THEORY TESTED. 31 

found the dwelling a smoking ruin, and all 
the family murdered and scalped except a 
young woman, who had been brought up by 
his parents, and to whom the young man was 
tenderly attached. She had been taken away 
alive, as was ascertained by examining the trail 
of the savages. 

Wetzel soon discovered, by a close inspection 
of the footmarks, that the party consisted of 
three Indians and a renegade white man — an 
occurrence not uncommon in those early days, 
when for crime, or the baser purpose of revenge, 
the white outlaw fled to the savages, and was 
adopted on trial into their tribe. As it w^as- 
late in the day, the nearest help still at some 
considerable distance, and as there were only 
four to contend with, they decided on imme- 
diate pursuit. And, moreover, as the deed had 
very recently been done, they hoped to over- 
take them in their camp that night, or perhaps 
before they could cross the Ohio River ; to 
which the Indians always retreated after effect- 



32 EARLY HISTORY OP THE NORTH-WEST. 

ing a successful foray, considering themselves 
in a manner safe from pursuit when they had 
crossed to its right bank, at that time wholly 
occupied by the Indian tribes. 

THE PURSUIT. 

Ardent and unwearied was the pursuit; the 
one to recover his lost love, and the other to 
assist his new friend, and take revenge for the 
slaughter of his countrymen — slaughter and re- 
venge being at that period the daily business 
of the borderers. Wetzel followed the trail of 
the retreating savages with the unerring sa- 
gacity of a blood-hound, and just at dusk traced 
them to the Ohio, some miles below Wheeling, 
nearly opposite the mouth of Captina Creek. 
Much to their disappointment, they soon found 
that the Indians had crossed the river by con- 
structing a raft of logs and brush — their usual 
manner of passing a stream when at a distance 
from their villages. By carefully examining 
"the signs" on the opposite shore, Wetzel 



THE ENEMY OVERTAKEN. 33 

directly discovered the fire of the Indian camp, 
in a hollow way, a few rods from the river. 

THE ENEMY OVERTAKEN. 

Lest the noise of constructing a raft should 
alarm the Indians, and give notice of the pur- 
suit, the two hardy adventurers determined to 
swim the stream a few rods below. This they 
easily accomplished, being both excellent swim- 
mers. Fastening their clothes in a bundle on 
the tops of their heads, with their rifles and 
ammunition above, they reached the opposite 
shore in safety. After carefully inspecting 
their arms, and putting every article of attack 
or defense in its proper place, they crawled 
very cautiously to a position which gave them 
a full view of their enemies; who, believing 
themselves safe from pursuit, were carelessly 
reposing around the fire, thoughtless of the fate 
that awaited them. They soon discovered the 
young woman, alive and seated by the fire, but 
making much moaning and complaint; wliile 



?A EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

the white man, whose voice they could dis- 
tinctly hear from their position, was trying to 
console her with the promise of kind usage, 
and an adoption into the tribe. 

The young man could hardly restrain his 
rage, but was for firing and rushing instantly 
upon the foe. Wetzel, more cautious, told 
him to wait till daylight appeared, when they 
could make the attack with a better chance of 
success, and of also killing the whole party; 
while, if they attacked in the dark, a part of 
them would certainly escape. 

SKILLFUL AND SUCCESSFUL ATTACK. 

With the earliest dawn the Indians arose 
and prepared to depart. The young man se- 
lecting the white renegade, and Wetzel one of 
the stoutest Indians, they both fired at the 
same instant, each killing his man. His com- 
panion rushed forward, knife in hand, to release 
the young woman, while Wetzel reloaded his 
piece, and pushed in pursuit of the two Indians 



SKILLFUL AND SUCCESSFUL ATTACK. 35 

who had taken to the woods till they could 
discover the number of their enemies. When 
he found he was seen by the savages, Wetzel 
discharged his rifle at random, in order to di-aw 
them from their cover. 

Directly they heard the report and found 
themselves unhurt, they rushed upon him be- 
fore he could again reload, thinking on an easy 
conquest. Taking to his heels, he loaded his 
gun as he ran, unnoticed by his pursuers, and 
suddenly wheeling about discharged its con- 
tents through the body of liis nearest and 
unsuspecting enemy. The remaining Indian, 
seeing the fate of his companion, and that his 
antagonist's gun was now certainly empty, 
rushed forward with all energy, the prospect 
of revenge fairly before him. Wetzel led him 
on, dodging from tree to tree, till his rifle was 
again ready, when, suddenly facing about, he 
shot his remaining enemy dead at his feet. 
After taking their scalps and recovering the 
lost plunder, Wetzel and his friend returned 



36 EARLY HISTORY OP THE NORTH-WEST. 

with their rescued captive unharmed to the 
settlements. 

DEATH OP WETZEL. 

Like honest Joshua Fleehart, after the peace 
of 1795, the country becoming filled with new 
settlers, Wetzel pushed for the distant frontiers 
on the Mississippi, where he could trap the 
beaver, hunt the buffalo and the deer, and occa- 
sionally shoot an Indian, whom he mortally 
hated. He died, as he had always lived, "a 
free man of the forest." 



37 



CHAPTER III. 

BORDER SETTLEMENTS. 



At the close of the foregoing narrative, the 
boat had reached the mouth of Beaver River, 
where I disembarked at a spot called '' the 
Point," about a mile from Beavertown, the 
county seat of Beaver county, Pennsylvania. 
It stands near the site of old Fort M'Intosh, 
on an elevated alluvion of several square miles 
in extent, composed of clay, gravel, and large 
bowlders of sand rock, thrown up by the river 
in ancient ages, but which has subsequently 
retreated to its present bed, some eighty or 
one hundred feet below the surface of the plain. 
This elevated alluvion was once doubtless the 
bed of the Ohio. It is now covered with a 
fertile soil, and was clothed with forest trees at 



38 EARLY HISTOEY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

the period of the erection of Fort M'Intosh, 
which was built in the year 1778, by a military 
force from th~e garrison at Fort Pitt, under the 
command of General M'Intosh. It stood near 
the verge of the plain, commanding a view of 
the Ohio River and the mouth of Beaver. The 
walls of the fort formed a square, covering 
about half an acre of ground, regularly stock- 
aded, and built of timber from the adjacent 
forest. Here were four bastions mounted with 
field pieces, from four to nine pounders, one in 
each bastion, and two in the center of the fort. 
A covered way led down to the river for the 
supply of water for the troops, and to protect 
them from the attacks of the Indians. Fort 
M'Intosh was twenty-eight miles below Fort 
Pitt, and was a rallying point for the borderers 
when assembling for a foray against the Indian 
towns on the Muskingum and Scioto Rivers; 
and also for the pursuit of war parties when 
returning from their depredations on the white 
settlements. I love to linger round these an- 



OLD FORT m'INTOSH. 39 

cient relics of by-gone days, and call up the 
shades of the departed warriors who once trav- 
ersed these forests, and to ruminate on the 
deeds, both of the battle and the chase, that 
excited the admiration and the praise of their 
cotemporaries. In those days every hunter was 
also a warrior. Their neighborhood was a fa- 
vorite haunt with the savage, both on account of 
the abundance of fish found below the falls of 
the Beaver, and for the fine hunting grounds in 
the vicinity. It was also geographically favor- 
able for ingress to the white settlements on 
the Monongahela and intermediate country; the 
Ohio here taking a wide sweep to the north- 
west, formed a semi-circle or peninsula, to which 
this was the gate. It is now equally favorable 
to the pursuits of civilization, and the names 
and the feats of the borderers are already swal- 
lowed up in the vortex of commercial and agri- 
cultural avocations. Two canals and a railroad 
center at this place, and already several large 
and bustling villages have sprung up on the 



40 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

banks of the Beaver — Bridgewater, about a 
mile from the mouth, near the lower bridge, 
and Brighton and Fallstown, five miles up at 
the falls of the Beaver. These will shortly be 
towns of great manufacturing importance, from 
the double advantage of one of the finest water 
privileges in the State, and the immense de- 
posits of coal found in the adjacent hills. A 
bed of cannel coal, lately opened, is said to be 
twelve feet in thickness. 



At eleven, A. M., I took a seat in the mail 
coach for Poland, in Trumbull county, Ohio, 
thbrty-eight miles northerly from Beavertown. 
Directly on leaving Bridgewater, and crossing 
a small stream on a neat bridge, we began to 
ascend a long, steep hill, called " Brady's Hill." 
It took its name from an interesting border 
adventure which occurred near its base, "in 
early times," about the year 1777. 

Captain Samuel Brady was one of that band 



Brady's kill. 41 

of brave men, who, in the trying days of the 
Revolutionary war, lived on the western borders 
of Pennsylvania, exposed to all the horrors and 
dangers of Indian warfare. He held a commis- 
sion from the Congress of the United States, and 
for a part of the time commanded a company of 
rangers, who traversed the country below Pitts- 
burg, bordering the Ohio River. He was born, as 
I learn from one of his sons, in Shippensburg, 
Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, in the year 
1758, and must have removed when quite young 
across the mountains into the valley of the 
Monongahela to have become so thoroughly 
versed in woodcraft and Indian adventures. He 
was over six feet in hight, remarkably erect, 
and active in his movements, with light blue 
eyes, fair skin, and dark hair. 

In personal and hand-to-hand conflict with 
the Indians he is said to have exceeded any 
other man west of the mountains excepting 
Daniel Boone. Several interesting sketches were 
published in the Blairsville Recorder, a year or 



42 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

two since, detailing some of his adventures, 
which in the hands of a Weems would make a 
most interesting volume. At the period of this 
event, Captain Brady hved on Chartier Creek, 
about twelve miles below Pittsburg, a stream 
much better known, however, to pilots and keel-, 
boat men of modern days, by the significant 
name of '' Shirtee." He had become a bold and 
vigorous backwoodsman, inured to all the toils 
and hardships of a borderer's hfe, and very ob- 
noxious to the savages from his numerous suc- 
cessful attacks on their war parties, and from 
shooting them in his hunting excursions when- 
ever they crossed his path or came within reach 
of his rifle. He was in fact that which many 
of the early borderers were, " an Indian hater." 
His hatred was not without cause — his father, 
one brother, wife, and two or three children 
having been slain by the savages. This class 
of men seem to have been more numerous in 
the region of the Monongahela than in any 
other portion of the frontiers, which doubtless 



TRAPPINQ EXCURSION. 43 

arose from tlic slaughter at Braddock's defeat, 
and the numerous murders and attacks on de- 
fenseless families that followed that defeat for 
many years. Brady was also a very successful 
trapper and hunter, and took more beaver than 
any of the Indians themselves. 

TRAPPING EXCURSION. 

In one of his adventurous trapping excur- 
sions on the waters of the Beaver, or Mahon- 
ing, which so greatly abounded in the animals 
of this species in early days that it took its 
name from this fact, it so happened that the 
Indians surprised him in his camp and took 
him prisoner. To have shot or tomahawked 
him on the spot would have been but a small 
gratification to that of satiating their revenge 
by burning him at a slow fire after having run 
the gantlet in presence of all the Indians of 
their village. He was therefore taken alive to 
their encampment, on the right bank of the 
Beaver, about two miles from its mouth. After 



44 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

the usual exultations and rejoicings at the cap- 
ture of a noted enemy, and the ceremony of 
the gantlet was^gone through with, a fire was 
prepared by which Brady was placed, stripped 
naked, and his arms unbound. Around him the 
Indians formed a large cu'cle of men, women, 
and children, dancing, and yelling, and uttering 
all manner of threats and abuse, that their 
small knowledge of the English language could 
afford, previous to tying him to the stake. 
Brady looked on these preparations for death, 
and on his savage foes, with a firm countenance 
and a steady eye, meeting all their threats with 
a truly-savage fortitude. 

In the midst of their dancing and rejoicing, 
the squaw of one of their chiefs came near him 
with a child in her arms. Quick as thought, 
and a presence of mind with which few mortals 
are gifted, he snatched it from her and threw 
it into the midst of the flames. Horror-struck 
at the sudden transaction, the Indians simul- 
taneously rushed to rescue it from the fire. In 



TRAPPING EXCURSION. 45 

the midst of this confusion Brady darted from 
the circle, overturning all that came in his way, 
and rushed into the adjacent tliickets with the 
Indians yelling at liis heels. He ascended the 
steep side of the present hill amid the discharge 
of fifty rifles, and sprung down the opposite 
declivity into the deep ravines and laurel tliick- 
ets that abound for some miles to the west. 
His knowledge of the country, and wonderful 
activity and strength, enabled him to elude his 
enemies, and reach the settlements on the south 
side of the Ohio.' 

He lived many years after this escape, and 
gratified his hatred by killing numbers of his 
foes in the several rencounters which ensued. 
The hill near whose base tlijs adventure was 
achieved still goes by his name, and the inci- 
dent is often referred to by the traveler as the 
coach is slowly di-aggcd up its side. In looking 
down upon the laurel thickets which still cluster 
round the rugged cliffs of sand rock, and by 
their evergreen foliage perpetuate the memory 



46 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

of Bradj, I fancied I could still hear the shrill 
whoop of the savage, as he pursued with des- 
perate energy his escaping foe. 

NEW CONNECTICUT. 

After leaving the vicinity of Brady's Hill 
the road passes over rather a hilly country, 
which, as we progress northerly, gradually be- 
comes more level. The whole region is rich 
in materials for legendary lore, many of which 
are already lost in the lapse of time and the 
neghgence of oral tradition. I reached Poland 
that ' evening. It is a thriving village, located 
on a small tributary branch of the Mahoning, 
in the south-east corner of Trumbull county, 
Ohio. The soil, climate, and face of the coun- 
try constituting what is called "New Connect- 
icut," and of which this county forms a part, 
are as favorable to agriculture as any portion 
of Ohio. The inhabitants are chiefly from the 
State of Connecticut — that land of industry and 
economy. 



NEW CONNECTICUT. 47 

The improvements already made show that 
a removal to the West has in no way dimin- 
ished their habits of diligence and love of cul- 
tivation. Nearly every settler is the owner of 
the soil he tills ; and in no portion of the United 
States is there a more uniform equality of prop- 
erty or union in supporting measures for the 
promotion of the pubhc weal. School-houses 
are seen at short intervals along the roads, and 
well-built churches in the center of every town, 
showing that the two great pillars of the Re- 
public — religion and learrimg — are liberally and 
carefully sustained. , 

Most of the counties in New Connecticut are 
without poor-houses, and in several of them 
scarcely a single individual is supported at the 
public charge. After leaving Trumbull county 
we enter Portage on the west, so named from 
the circumstance of the grand carrying place, 
or portage between the waters of Lake Erie 
and the Muskingum River, being within this 
county. 



48 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 



RAVENNA. 

Ravenna is the county seat, and is a beau- 
tiful village, fast rising into importance. It 
stands directly on tlie dividing line between 
the waters of the Ohio and those of Lake Erie ; 
so that while one portion of the rain which 
falls within the village runs into the Cuyahoga 
and is discharged finally into the Gulf of the 
St. Lawrence, another part falls into the Mahon- 
ing and finds its way into the Gulf of Mexico. 
West of Ravenna the country becomes more 
undulating and studded with low hills, com- 
posed of gravel, sand, and primitive bowlders, 
washed into deep hollows, as if some mighty 
current had swept over it. Many of these 
concavities are now occupied by beautiful sheets 
of limpid water, covering several hundred acres. 
They are generally bordered with low green 
hills, or grassy slopes, calling to mind the liv- 
ing simile of a beautiful pearl surrounded by 
emeralds. 



Brady's pond. 49 



On the margin of a very fine pond, which 
lies near the road from Ravenna to the Falls 
of the Cuyahoga, I stopped a considerable time, 
searcliing for shells, and musing on the various 
events that had transpired on its borders, and 
to which it had been a silent, but still hving, 
witness in by-gone ages. The shore is covered 
with fine white sand, sparkhng with minute 
scales of mica. It is called ^'Brady's Pond,'* 
and lies about three miles east of the Falls of 
the Cuyahoga. It is noted as the scene of a 
thrilling adventure, in which the man whose 
name it bears was a principal actor. This pond, 
with two others adjacent, I am told, will soon be 
swallowed up in the great reservoir of the Ohio 
and Pennsylvania Canal, lying on the summit 
between the Mahoning and Cuyahoga. As 
many private advantages and comforts have 
to be sacrificed on the altar of public good 
when necessity requires, so the lovers of leg- 

4 



50 EARLY HISTORY OF HIE NORTH-WEST. 

endarj lore, and of places hallowed by striking 
events, must also give up this pond on similar 
principles. 



Samuel Brady seems to have been as much 
the hero of the north-east portion of the valley 
of the Ohio as Daniel Boone was of the south- 
west; and the country is as full of his hardy 
adventures and hair-breadth escapes, although 
he yet lacks the industrious pen of a Flint to 
collect and to clothe them in that fascinating 
language so pecuhar to his style. From un- 
doubted authority it seems the following inci- 
dents actually transpired in this vicinity. 

Brady's residence was in that part of Penn- 
sylvania now called Washington county, as 
noted in the "legend of Brady's Hill;" and 
being a man of uncommon activity and cour- 
age, as well as very superior intellectual facul- 
ties, he was generally selected as the leader of 
the hardy borderers in all their forays and pur- 



"Brady's leap." 51 

suits into the Indian territories north of the 
Oliio. On this occasion, which was about the 
year 1780, a hirge party of Indian warriors, 
from the Falls of the Cuyahoga and adjacent 
country, had made an inroad on to the south 
side of the Ohio River, in that part of Wash- 
ington county then known as the settlement of 
" Catfish Camp," so called after an old Indian 
warrior of that name, who lived there when the 
whites first came into the country, on the Mo- 
nongahela River. This party had murdered 
several families, and with the plunder had re- 
crossed the Ohio before effectual pursuit could 
be made. 

Directly after the alarm was given Brady 
collected his chosen followers, and hastened on 
in pursuit; but the Indians having a day or 
more the start before a sufiicient party could 
be gathered, he was unable to overtake them 
in time to arrest their return to their villages. 

Near the spot where the town of Ravenna 
now stands the Indians separated into two 



52 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

parties; one of which went to the north, and 
the other west to the Falls of the Cuyahoga. 
Brady's men also divided; a part pursued the 
northern trail, and the remainder went with 
him to the Indian village lying on the river, 
in the present township of Northampton, in 
Portage county. Although he made his ap- 
proaches with the utmost caution, yet the In- 
dians, expecting a pursuit, were on the look- 
out, and ready to receive him with numbers 
fourfold to those of Brady's party. Their only 
safety, after a few hasty shots, was in retreat, 
which soon became, from the ardor of the pur- 
suit, a perfect flight. Brady directed his men 
to separate, and each one to take care of him- 
self. The Indians immediately knew him from 
his voice; and having a most inveterate hatred 
of him for his former numerous injuries, left 
all the other borderers and pursued him with 
united strength. The Cuyahoga here makes a 
wide bend to the south, including a large tract 
of several miles of surface, like a peninsula; 



"Brady's leap." 53 

within this tract the pursuit was hotly con- 
tested. 

The Indians, by extending their line to the 
right and left, forced him on to the banks of 
the stream. Having, in peaceable times, often 
hunted over this ground with the Indians, and 
knowing every turn of the Cuyahoga as famil- 
iarly as the villager the streets of his town, he 
directed his course for the river at a spot where 
the whdle stream is compressed by the rocky 
cliffs into a narrow channel of only twenty-two 
feet across the top of the chasm; although it 
is considerably wider beneath, and much more 
than that in hight above the current. Through 
this pass the water rushes Hke a race-horse, 
chafing and roaring at its confinement by the 
rocky channel. A short distance above, the 
stream is at least fifty yards wide. Brady, as 
he approached the chasm, concentrating his 
mighty powers, knowing that life or death was 
in the effort, leaped the pass at a bound. 

It so happened that a low place in the oppo- 



54 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

site cliff favored the leap, into which he dropped, 
and, grasping the bushes, helped himself to as- 
cend to the top of the precipice. The Indians 
for a few moments were lost in wonder and 
admiration, and before they had recovered their 
recollection he was half-way up the side of the 
opposite hill, but still within reach of rifle-shot. 
They could have easily shot him before, but 
being bent on taking him alive for torture, and 
to glut their long-delayed revenge, they fore- 
bore the use of the rifle; but now, seeing him 
likely to escape, they all fired upon him. One 
shot wounded him severely in the hip, but not 
so badly as to prevent his progress. The In- 
dians having to make a considerable circuit 
before they could cross the river, Brady gained 
a good distance ahead; but his wound growing 
stiff, and the enemy now gaining on him, he 
made for the pond which still bears his name, 
and, plunging into the water, swam beneath the 
surface for some distance, till he came up under 
the trunk of a large oak-tree, which had fallen 



55 



into the pond. This completely covered him 
from observation, but furnished a small breath- 
ing place to support life. The Indians tracked 
him by the blood to the margin of the water; 
made diligent search all round the pond; but, 
finding no signs of his exit, finally came to the 
conclusion that he had sunk from the quantity 
of water taken in at the wound. 

They were at one time standing on the very 
trunk of the tree beneath which he lay con- 
cealed. Brady, understanding their language, 
was very glad to hear the result of theif argu- 
ment; and after they had gone he made good 
his retreat, lame and hungry, to his home. 
His followers also all returned in safety. The 
chasm over which he leaped is in sight of the 
bridge where we crossed the Cuyahoga, and 
is known in all that region by the name of 
"Brady's Leap." 



56 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 



CHAPTER lY. 

INCIDENTS ON THE BORDER. 
FALLS OF THE CUYAHOGA. 

"Cuyahoga," in the language of the Dela- 
ware Indians, means "crooked." The Falls 
are situated on the south bend of the river, 
in Portage — now Summit — county, thirty miles 
from Lake Erie. The stream here, making a 
wide sweep southerly, touches the northern 
margin of the coal measures, and is said to be 
the only lake river that has coal on its shores. 
That portion of it called "the Falls" is more 
than two miles in extent, and has a descent of 
nearly two hundred and twenty-five feet from 
the head to the foot of the rapids. During its 
passage down this dechvity, the water, in various 
places, falls from ten and fifteen to twenty-two 
feet at a single leap; at others, it rushes down 



FALLS OF THE CUYAHOGA. 57 

an inclined plane, strewed with fragments of 
rocks, so that a continued roar is heard the 
whole distance. In the course of ages the 
water has cut away the rock strata to the 
depth of nearly two hundi-ed feet. 

Immense masses of sand rock still continue 
to fall, from year to year, as the water under- 
mines the cliffs, and the wintery frosts loosen 
them from their beds. In one place a huge 
mass, of fifty feet in hight and one hundred or 
more in length, has formed an island, around 
the sides of which the water rushes and foams 
with great fury. Several large pines and hem- 
locks have found a footing on its top and 
sides, casting a youthful freshness over its 
hoary front. The margins of the cliffs are 
lined with beautiful evergreens of several spe- 
cies. The Falls afford one of the finest natural 
sections for the geologist. The rock strata, 
being accessible from the tops of the adjacent 
hills to the bed of the river, give the order 
of superposition in a very beautiful manner. 



58 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

Among the series is a thick bed of red sand- 
stone, very suitable for architectural purposes. 
The rapid water at the foot of the Falls afforded 
a favorite and very valuable site for fishing to 
all the Indians of this vicinity. 

INDIAN FISHERIES. 

In the Spring of the year the Cuyahoga and 
other lake streams, especially such as communi- 
cated with ponds, were literally alive with fish, 
especially that species known to Western sports- 
men by the name of white fish. This fish is 
peculiar to the lakes, and is the coreganus albus 
of Lesear. The savage of the Atlantic coast 
was not more favored in this respect than he 
of the shores of Lake Erie. The fish-spear, 
plunged at a venture into the water, brought 
out two or three fish at each throw. 

I have been told by a man, now living in 
Marietta — Mr. Joseph Kelly — and who was a 
prisoner when a boy with the Shawnee Indians 
for several years, that the fish in these streams 



JOSEPH KELLY, OR THE LOST SON. 59 

were astonishingly numerous. At the season 
of fishing — which commenced in April and con- 
tinued for several weeks — every man, woman, 
and hoy of the whole village were called out. 
The men were occupied in spearing or taking 
them with hooks, and the women and boys in 
cleaning and di-ying them on frames over a fire 
of brush-wood, in the same manner that jerlced 
venison is prepared. Having no salt, they re- 
quired a thorough drying and smoking to pre- 
serve them from decay, and to supply food 
during the Summer months when hunting was 
poor. These fishing grounds were given up 
with great reluctance by the savages to the 
more powerful claimants of their "father-land" — 
the whites. But might has too often usurped 
the place of right, in modern as well as in more 
rude and barbarian times. 

JOSEPH KELLY, OR THE LOST SON. 

Joseph Kelly, the person above referred to, 
was taken a prisoner by the Shawnee Indians, 



60 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

on the 7tli of April, 1791, when only seven 
years old. He was then living in a garrison 
at Belleville, thu^ty miles below Marietta, on 
the left bank of the Ohio. He had gone out 
very early in the morning, with his father and 
another brother, to a field near the walls of the 
fort, to finish some planting. His father was a 
man of uncommon muscular power, but con- 
siderably deaf; so that he was not aware of 
the approach of the Indians till one of them 
had seized him, although little Joseph, who was 
near him, hallooed with all his might. The In- 
dian who had grasped him around the waist as 
he was stooping down to his work he instantly 
pitched, heels over head, for more than two 
rods, and defended himself so stoutly with his 
hoe, having no other weapon, that the Indians 
were obliged to shoot him, although their design 
evidently was to take him prisoner. In the 
midst of this struggle and alarm one Indian 
was killed by a shot from the garrison, which 
consisted of only five men, with several women 



JOSEPH KELLY, OR THE LOST SON. 61 

and children. The mother of little Joseph was 
an agonized spectator of the scene, and of the 
escape of another son, two years older, who, 
although in the same field, happened to see the 
Indians sooner, and reached the garrison. Two 
Indians seized Joseph, one by each hand, and, 
tossing him over the fence, hurried, or rather 
flew, with him through the woods, out of reach 
of the shot from the men in the garrison — 
among whom was Peter Anderson, a noted 
ranger and woodsman. As soon as the Indians 
reached a place of safety, they mustered their 
party, who were scattered about in the forest 
on different sides of the fort, and amounted to 
thirty warriors, assembled on purpose to take 
the garrison of Belleville, and destroy the in- 
habitants. 

Having a prisoner now in their possession, 
they proceeded to question him as to the num- 
ber in the fort. This they accompHshed by 
the aid of a renegade white man, with red hair 
and a freckled face, who had joined the Indians. 



62 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

When asked by this white savage, whose fea- 
tures he perfectly remembers to this day, af^r 
the lapse of forty-five years, how many men 
there were in the fort, little Joseph, with won- 
derful presence of mind, or the whim of the 
moment, answered "that it was full of men 
with guns, at least as many as a hundred." 
Tliis answer, from the well-knoAvn innocence 
and simplicity of childhood, intimidated the In- 
dians, and probably saved the garrison, as they 
soon after crossed the river, and commenced a 
retreat to their town near the Sandusky Bay. 
This they reached after a few days of tedious 
marching, and placed their prisoner in the coun- 
cil-house, according to custom, till the warriors 
and old men had decided on his fate. 

In this instance the decision was on the side 
of mercy; for little Joseph was adopted into 
the family of an old veteran warrior, who now 
had no children, but had, in different engage- 
ments, lost five sons by the hands of white men. 
The old warrior's name was "Mishalena," and 



JOSEPH KELLY, OR THE LOST SON. G3 

Mr. Kelly says lie was one of the most kind- 
hearted and benevolent ■ men he has ever met 
with in his whole life, as well as of the most 
noble and commanding appearance. Ilis wife's 
name was "Petcpsa," a thick-set, burly old 
woman, with her hair always at sixes and 
sevens. After losing five . sons, these untu- 
tored natives of the forest adopted the child 
of their mortal enemies, and treated him as 
their own! Wimt a lesson to the professors 
of Christianity ! 

Petepsa was naturally ill-natured and diffi- 
cult to please, and treated him, as she probably 
always chd her own chikh'cn, rather harshly. 
But he was always well fed when they had 
any thing to eat, and carefully nursed when 
sick, as he was in the Summer of 1794, with 
a severe attack of dysentery. He distinctly 
recollects that Petepsa gave him as a medi- 
cine the decoction of a very bitter herb, which 
he has since ascertained from the taste was 
cupatorium perfoliatum, or ^'Indian sage" — 



G4 EARLY HISTORY OP THE NORTH-WEST. 

known also by the names of ^* thorough wort " 
and "boneset" — a very effectual remedy for 
bowel complaints. 

Little Joseph soon became reconciled to his 
situation, although his thoughts often returned 
at night, while lying on his bear-skin bed before 
the wigwam fire, to his kind-hearted mother, 
and his little brothers and sisters. But time 
and habit gradually accustomed liim to his new 
acquaintances, and old friends were nearly for- 
gotten in the attachments he had now formed 
for his new ones. Whether covered by a red, 
black, or white skin, the human heart is the 
same, and meets a kindi^ed feeling in all that 
wear "the human face divine." In childhood 
our affections are like the softened wax, and 
are easily molded to suit the circumstances 
around us. The sports of the young Indian 
boys, who treated him as a brother, attracted 
liis attention; and he directly became as expert 
in the use of the bow and arrow, and as active 
in foot-races, ball, etc., as the best of them. 



JOSEPH KELLY, OR THE LOST SON. G5 

His appetite being good, and possessing a vig- 
orous frame, their food and cooking were fully 
as acceptable to his palate as that of his former 
home. 

In this "way four years passed ofl*, during 
which time the war still continued, and with 
almost unvaried success on the side of the In- 
dians. During this period the armies of Har- 
mar and St. Clair had been defeated, and de- 
struction and desolation thi^eatened the whole 
of the frontier settlements. At length "Mad 
Anthony," that "thunderbolt of war," turned 
tlie tide of battle, and gave the Indians a signal 
defeat. The near approach of his army di'ove 
the Indians, consisting of women and children, 
and a few old men, in great haste from the 
village in which little Joseph was then li,ving, 
near the mouth of the River Auglaize. So 
unexpected was the advance of General Wayne 
that they had no time to take any provisions, 
and only a few kettles and blankets, but hurry- 
ing into their canoes pushed off down the Mau- 
5 



66 EAKLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

mee into the vicinity of Detroit. It was in the 
month of August, 1794, and Mr. Kelly re- 
members well with what regret they left their 
fine fields of corn, which he had assisted to 
cultivate, already fit for roasting ears, the 
beans, and the squashes, with large patches of 
water-melons. 

It was just at evening when they abandoned 
their village surrounded by plenty: the next 
morning sun rose upon its ruins. That night 
the American army destroyed all their crops; 
cutting down and wasting the corn, and burn- 
ing the dwelhngs where their forefathers had 
lived for many, many years. The sufi'ering 
from hunger and cold the following Winter 
was very great, but borne by the Indians with 
philosophical equanimity. The poor savage will 
cease to sufi'er from the wrongs of the white 
man only when he ceases to exist. A few brief 
years, and the whole aboriginal race will have 
vanished from the valley of the Mississippi 
beyond the mountains. 



TREATY WITH THE INDIANS 67 



TREATY WITH THE INDIANS. 

At the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, it was 
stipulated that all white prisoner's living with 
the Indians should be restored. Colonel Meigs, 
father of the late governor, was acting at the 
treaty, and being well acquainted with the 
circumstances of the captivity of Joseph — he 
living in Marietta at that time — made daily 
inquiries after him from every new Indian face 
that he could see; but for a long time without 
success. It seems that young Kelly, and a boy 
named "Bill," from Kentucky, whose family had 
all been killed, were kept back, from the reluct- 
ance their present parents felt to part with 
them — having become greatly attached to the 
boys, considering them as their own. At length 
he heard of a boy of a similar age on the River 
Raisin, several days' march from Greenville, 
and obtained an order from General Wayne to 
send out a party of six men and an In-dian 
guide, for the express purpose of bringing them 



68 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

in. Little Joseph parted from Ins Indian par- 
ents witli nearly as much regret as he had 
formerly done from his white ones; and poor 
Mishalena and Petepsa were now left in their 
old age like two ancient forest trees, around 
whose roots no green shoot appears. 

Directly after reaching Greenville, and Col- 
onel Meigs had got him into his possession, he 
started with a party by land, in February, 
across the swamps for Marietta; so anxious 
was this good and kind-hearted man to restore 
the lost Joseph to the arms of his sorrowing 
and widowed mother. A young Indian guided 
the travelers, without deviation, through the 
trackless forests, and struck the Muskingum 
River at " Big Rock," twenty-four miles above 
Marietta, and near the settlement of "Wolf 
Creek Mills." 

INDIAN TACT. 

As a specimen of Indian tact in pursuing 
a course through the wilderness, Mr. Kelly 



INDIAN TACT. 69 

says, tliat one cloudy and snowy day the party 
became a little be^yildered in a thick beech 
woods. Colonel Meigs produced his compass, 
and, setting it, insisted their course lay east. 
The Indian, after examining the trees a few 
minutes, .pointed to the south-east. The Colonel 
Btill sticking for the authority of the compass, 
was unwilling to proceed. The Indian at length 
became vexed, and shouldering his rifle, mut- 
tered in broken English, "dam' compass," and 
pursued his own course. In a short time it 
proved him to be right and Colonel Meigs in 
the wrong. They reached " Campus Martins," 
the stockaded fort at Marietta in safety; and 
the fervent and oft-repeated prayer of the 
widowed mother was at length answered in the 
restoration of her "lost son."* 

♦Note. — While theso pages are passing through the press — 
midsummer, 1864 — Joseph Kelly, whoso captivity is here 
mentioned, departed this life at Marietta, aged eighty years. 
He was a native of Plainfield, Massachusetts, and was brought 
by his father to Marietta, when four years old, in the Spring 
of 1789. In 1790 the family removed to Belleville, West Va., 



70 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 



CUYAHOGA FALLS. 

But to return to the Falls of the Cuyahoga. 
The location of this spot is more favorable for 
manufactures than any other in Ohio. The 
fall is so great that the water can be used over 
and over again, in turning machinery, before it 
reaches the foot of the descent. The advantage 
of two railroads and canals in the vicinity will 
facilitate the transport of the raw materials and 
the distribution of the manufactured articles to 
all parts of the "West. The center of a fertile 
and healthy region will add all the facilities of 
agriculture to feed the artisans. Several vil- 
lages have sprung up on both sides of the falls, 
and the foundations of wealth are already laid. 
To this add the water-power on the Little 



where he was captured. He remained with the Indians till 
the Winter of 1795-6, nearly five years, when he was released. 
He had lost the English language, and left his Indian parents 
with regret. He arrived in Marietta in March, 1796, and was, 
as the narrative records, restored to his mother. — Editor. 



FORT LAURENS. 71 

Cuyahoga, and that of the Akron, and no spot 
can combine more advantages. 

TUSCARAWAS. 

In passing do\yn south from the summit level 
at Akron, the canal traverses some fine ponds, 
which are used both for transportation and for 
feeders. These were once stocked with the half- 
reasoning beaver, which, like the tribes of abo- 
rigines, have disappeared at the approach of the 
white man. Several branches flow from these 
ponds, which soon uniting form that beautiful 
stream, the Tuscarawas. It takes its name from 
a powerful tribe of Indians who once resided on 
its borders^ 

FORT LAURENS. 

The canal proceeds down the valley of this 
river, and after crossing the northern boundary 
of Tuscarawas county, passes through the ruins 
of old Fort Laurens, one flank of which rested 
on the river. It was named by the builders in 



72 EARLY HISTORY OP THE NORTH-WEST. 

honor of Colonel Laurens, of South Carolina, 
then a prisoner in the Tower of London, and 
one of the most patriotic men of that day. In 
the eleventh edition of the Ohio Gazetteer, the 
township in which the ruins are located is called 
Lawrence, as if named for Captain Lawrence, 
of the United States Navy, which has probably 
been done by mistake. 

The ditch and parapets are yet plainly seen, 
covering about an acre of ground, but the stout 
v^ooden walls were long since burned by the 
Indians in whose territory it was seated. The 
fort stood on an elevated plain near the right 
bank of the river, a little below Sandy Creek, 
which puts in on the opposite shore, and was 
built in the Autumn of the year 1778, by a 
detachment of a thousand men from Fort Pitt 
and vicinity, under the command of General 
M'Intosh. A garrison of one hundred and 
eighty men was left in the fort for the pro- 
tection of the frontier, under the order of 
Colonel Gibson. 



SIEGE OF FORT LAURENS. 73 

SIEGE OF FORT LAURENS. 

As soon as the Indians were aware of its 
erection tliey besieged it with an army of eight 
hundred warriors, and as they could not carry 
it by assault, were determined to subdue it by 
famine. For this purpose they closely encircled 
it for six weeks, in the beginning of "Winter, 
suffering no one to go out or to enter into the 
fort. By this time the stores of the garrison 
were nearly exhausted, and fiimine stared them 
in the face. The Inchans suspecting their con- 
dition, and being still more destitute themselves, ' 
proposed to Colonel Gibson, that if he would 
give them a barrel of flour and some tobacco, 
they would raise the siege, thinking by this 
to learn the state of their stores. The flour 
was rolled out and the Indians departed. 

RELIEF OF THE GARRISON. 

Soon after a detachment from Fort M'Intosh 
brought a supply of provisions. Although the 



74 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

main body of Indians left them, yet small par- 
ties still continued to linger around the fort, 
watching for stragglers. Some time in January, 
1779, during very severe cold weather, a party 
of men, seventeen in number, were ordered out 
very early in the morning to bring in fire-wood, 
which was cut for the use of the garrison before 
the army left in the Fall. The_men had been 
out for several preceding mornings, and no 
signs of Indians being seen for some -time they 
were not very careful. The wood lay near an 
ancient tumulus or mound, not far from the 
walls of the garrison, behind which a party of 
Indians lay concealed. As the soldiers passed 
'round on one side of the mound, a part of the 
Indians came behind them on the other side, 
and inclosed the wood party, killing and scalp- 
ing the whole of them. My informant, Henry 
Jolly, Esq., was acquainted with some of the 
men, and assisted in burying them when he 
came on with the rehef from Fort M'Intosh, 
in the Spring following. 



RELIEF OF THE GARRISON. 75 

The garrison suffered so much from constant 
attacks, and the difficulty and hazard of keep- 
ing up a fort in the enemy's country at a dis- 
tance of seventy miles from the frontiers was 
so great, that finally the AmericaJns concluded 
to abandon it. This was done in August, 1779 ; 
and Henry Jolly, then -tin ensign in the Conti- 
nental army, and now living near Columbus, 
Ohio, was the last man who left the walls of 
Fort Laurens. 



76 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 



CHAPTER y. 

THE MORAVIAN MISSIONS IN OHIO. 
SCHOENBRUNN AND THE MORAVIAN MISSIONARIES. 

As we proceed soutli along tlie Ohio Canal, 
near the center of the county of Tuscarawas, 
and not far from the site of the present town 
of New Philadelphia, we reach that ancient seat 
of missionary labor — Schoenbrunn, or "Beauti- 
ful Spring." From the writings of Loskiel this 
region has become in a manner classic ground. 
It was the spot selected by David Zeisberger, 
the Moravian missionary, for a station as early 
as the 3d of May, in the year 1772. A strip 
of country, extending for twenty miles along 
the wide alluvial lands of the Tuscarawas, was 
formally ceded to the Christian Indians, at that 
time living in Fredericstadt, on the Big Beaver, 
by the Delaware tribe, among whom was White 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 77 

Eyes, a celebrated -svarrior. This Indian al- 
ways remained a firm friend of the missionaries 
to the day of his death, -which took place in 
1780, at Pittsburg, where he died of the small- 
pox. 

The whole history of the missionaries, and 
that of their Christian converts, seems to have 
been a continued series of persecutions. They 
had been driven from their stations on the Sus- 
quehannah River, to one on the Alleghany, and 
from that to Fredericstadt on the Big Beaver. 
A brief sketch of these holy men, and their 
labors, as connected with the border history of 
the West, can not fail to be interesting. 

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 

The Moravians commenced their missions 
among the North American Indians as early 
as the year 1742. One of their first establish- 
ments for the spread of the Gospel was among 
the Mohegan Indians, at a place called Sheko- 
meko, within the boundaries of the colony of 



78 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

New York, not far from Poughkeepsie. Here 
the missionaries were greatly persecuted by the 
whites, who maliciously accused them and the 
Christian Indians of being in a league with the 
French, who at that period held extensive pos- 
sessions ia America. 

In 1746, David Zeisberger, and Frederic Post, 
who had been on a visit to the Iroquois In- 
dians to perfect their knowledge of the native 
languages, were arrested at Albany on their 
return and thrown into prison in New York, 
where they remained nearly two months. Zeis- 
berger was a man of low stature, but full of zeal 
for the cause of Christ, and animated like St. 
Paul with undaunted courage. He personally 
estabhshed nearly all the missionary stations in 
the valley of the Ohio, traversing the wilder- 
ness on foot, braving the dangers of flood, 
famine, and the hatred of hostile savages often 
displayed in the most threatening manner. 

How wonderful to reflect upon the persever- 
ance and zeal of such men as Zeisberger, Hecke- 



MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 79 

welder, and their brethren — self-supported and 
fed by the labor of their own hands — their 
bodies a living sacrifice on the altar of mis- 
sions! At that day no societies existed for the 
support of missionaries as at this period of the 
Church. The love of missions and the spread 
of the Gospel was their only help. Amid the 
wilderness, and far removed from civilized so- 
ciety, they received no aid from Government as 
most missionaries now do. Their only protector 
was God,~and their faith in the cause they had 
espoused. Sir William Johnson, I find, often 
lent them the assistance of his powerful influ- 
ence over the savage nations, in recommending 
them to their friendship. 

Even then, as now, a large portion of the dif- 
ficulty in Christianizing the Indians arose from 
the cupidity of white men in trafficking with 
thbm in rum — that spirit of the fire. Wherever 
they met with Indians free from its influence, 
they were generally ready to listen to the mes- 
sage of the missionary; and not only to listen. 



80 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

but to believe. Their teachings were not only 
conformed to the doctrines of Christianity, but 
also to schools and the arts of civilized life; 
so that in a few years they always created 
around them most of the comforts to be found 
in the white settlements. 

JOHN HECKEWELDER. 

John Heckewelder, with whom I was per- 
sonally acquainted, commenced his missionary 
career with Frederic Post, in the year 1762, 
at a station one hundred miles west of Fort 
Pitt, on the heads of the Tuscarawas, among 
the Delaware Indians, for the express purpose 
of learning their language. This mission failed, 
and he returned to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. 
He next joined the mission at San-gun-to-ut-en- 
uenk, or " the Tow^n of Peace," generally known 
by the name of Friedenstadt, above the falls of 
Beaver. He was a man of mild manners and 
pleasing address, whose heart overflowed with 
*' the milk of human kindness." In disposition 



EPIDEMIC DISEASE. 81 

he was more like the apostle John, while his 
companion, Zeisberger, partook of the spirit of 
St. Paul, but equally devoted and faithful in 
his Master's service. 

This mission was established bv the latter 
missionary, the third of May, A. D. 1770, by 
the removal of a number of families of Chris- 
tian Indians from a station near the head of 
the Alleghany River. They made the journey 
by water in sixteen canoes, ascending the Beaver 
with great labor and difficulty, to a place above 
the falls on the right bank of the stream. 

EPIDEMIC DISEASE. 

About this period, and for a year or two pre- 
vious, a fatal epidemic disease prevailed among 
the Indians in this quarter of the country. It 
was most probably a bihous remittent fever, 
such as has since appeared at intervals of 
twenty or thirty years in the western country. 
Loskiel speaks of the measles and small-pox 

as prevailing occasionally, so that this disease 
6 



82 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

was something else, and very likely an epidemic 
fever. The neighboring Indians pretended to 
believe it was sent as a punishment by the 
Great Spirit, on account of their forsaking the 
religion of their fathers. 

MIGRATIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN INDIANS. 

As the country on the Susquehanna River 
gradually filled up with white settlers, the mis- 
sions above Wilkesbarre, and in the vicinity of 
what is now Bradford county, Pennsylvania, at 
Friedenshutten, became daily more and more 
molested and incommoded by the traders and 
wicked persons persuading the Christian In- 
dians to leave the care of the teachers, and 
return to their former evil practices. Under 
all these discouragements it was thought best 
to remove the mission across the Alleghany 
Mountains, to Fredericstadt, on the Beaver 
River. The following quaint but very inter- 
esting narrative of the journey from Loskiel 
will give a faint view of the patience and suf- 



LOSKIEL'S NARRATIVE. 83 

fcrings of the Indian converts, in their migra- 
tion through the wilderness, at this early day. 
It Avas more brief than that of the ancient 
Israelites, but borne Avith far more equanimity. 

LOSKIEL^S NARRATIVE. 

''June 11, 1772. — All being ready for the 
journey, the congregation met for the last time 
at Friedenshutten, when the missionary re- 
minded them of the great favors and bless- 
ings received from God in this place, and then 
offered up praises and thanksgiving to Him, 
with fervent supplication for his peace and pro- 
tection on the journey. The company consisted 
of two hundi-ed and forty-one persons, and had 
dwelt at this spot since the year 1765." 

Brother Ettwein conducted those who went 
by land, and brother Rothe those by water, who 
were the greater number. The tediousness of 
this journey was a practical school of patience 
for the missionaries. The fatigue also attend- 
ing the emigration of a whole congregation, 



84 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

with all their goods and cattle, in a country 
like North America, can hardly be conceived 
by any one who has not experienced it, much 
less can it be described in a proper manner. 

The land travelers had seventy head of oxen 
and a still greater number of horses to care for, 
and sustained incredible hardships in forcing a 
way for themselves and their beasts through 
very thick woods and swamps of great extent, 
being directed only by a small path, and that 
hardly discernible in some places; so that it 
appears almost impossible to conceive how one 
man could work his way and mark a path 
through such close thickets and immense woods. 
It happened that when they were thus rather 
creeping than walking through the thick woods 
it rained almost incessantly. In one part of 
the country they were obliged to wade thirty- 
six times through the windings of the River 
Munsy, besides suffering other hardships. How- 
ever, they attended to their daily worship as 
regularly as circumstances would permit, and 



loskiel's narrative. 85 

frequently had strangers among them, both In- 
dians and white people, who were particularly 
attentive to the English discourses delivered 
by brother Ettwein. 

The party which went by water were every 
night obliged to seek a lodging on shore, and 
suffered much from the wet. Soon after their 
departure from Eriedenshutten the measles 
broke out among them, and many fell sick, 
especially the children. The attention due to 
the sick necessarily increased the fatigue of 
the journey. The many falls and dangerous 
rapids in the Susquehanna River occasioned 
immense trouble and frequent delays. How- 
ever, by the mercy of God they passed safe 
up the west arm of the river to Great Island, 
where they joined the land travelers the 29th of 
June, and now proceeded all together by land. 

When they arrived at the mountains they 
met with great difficulties in crossing them ; 
for, not having horses enough to carry all their 
baggage, most of them were obliged to carry 



86 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

some part. In one of the valleys they were 
suddenly caught in a most tremendous storm 
of thunder and lightning, with violent rain. 
During a considerable part of the way the 
rattlesnakes kept them in constant alarm. As 
they lay, in great numbers, either near or in 
the path, brother Ettwein trod upon one with 
fifteen rattles, which so frightened him that, 
according to his own account, he could hardly 
venture to step forward for many days after, 
and every rustling leaf made him di-ead the 
approach of a rattlesnake. These venomous 
creatures destroyed several of the horses by 
their bite, but the oxen were favored by being 
driven in the rear. 

ES^CIDENTS ON THE ROUTE. 

In one part of the forest the fires and storms 
had caused such confusion among the trees 
that the wood was almost impenetrable. Sister 
Rothe with her child fell several times from her 
horse, and once with her foot entangled in the 



INCIDENTS ON THE ROUTE. 87 

stirrup; another time slic fell into a deep mo- 
rass. Some persons departed this life during 
the journey, among them a poor cripple, ten 
or eleven years old, who was carried by his 
mother in a basket on her back. When he 
perceived his end approaching he begged most 
earnestly to be baptized. His request was 
granted; soon after which he ended a life of 
misery, and departed rejoicing. 

Our travelers sometimes tarried a day or two 
in a place to supply themselves with food. 
They shot upward of one hundred and fifty 
deer in the course of the journey, and found 
great abundance of fish in the rivers and brooks. 
They likewise met with a peculiar kind of turtle, 
about the size of a goose, with a long neck, 
pointed head, and eyes like a dove. It had 
scales on its back and lower part of the belly ; 
all the rest of its covering was soft, resembling 
leather of a liver color.* 

♦The soft-shelled turtle, or trionyx ferox. 



88 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

July 29th they left the mountains, and ar- 
rived on the banks of the Ohio, [Alleghany 
River, (?)] where they immediately built canoes 
to send the aged and infirm, with the heavy 
baggage, down the river. Two days afterward 
they were met by brother Heckewelder and 
some Indian brethren with horses from Fried- 
enstadt, by whose assistance they arrived there 
on the oth of August, and were received with 
every mark of affection by the whole congre- 
gation. 

"living ashes." 

The following beautiful specimen of native 
poetic imagery is copied from the same narra- 
tive: "The most troublesome plague, both to 
man and beast, especially in passing through 
the woods, was a kind of insect called by the 
Indians 'pouk,' or 'living ashes,' from their 
being so small that they are hardly visible, and 
their bite as painful as the burning of red-hot 
ashes. These tormenting creatures were met 



REMOVAL TO GNADENHUTTEN. SU 

in the greatest numbers in a tract of country 
■VNhicli the Indians call 'a pkce avoided by all 
men.' " 

The following circumstance gave rise to this 
name. A great many years ago an Indian, 
affecting the manners of a hermit, lived upon 
a high rock in tliis neighborhood, and used 
to appear to travelers or hunters in different 
garbs — frightening some and murdering others. 
At length a valiant Indian chief was so for- 
tunate as to surprise and kill him; and having 
burnt the hermit's bones to ashes, scattered 
them in the air through the forest, which soon 
took on a living form and became "pouks." 
These insects were probably the same that after- 
ward became so well known as "seed-ticks." 



The mischievous consequences of the rum 
trade still continued to follow the mission after 

* This narrative is condeused from the history of Loskiel, 
with occasional remarks by the writer. 



90 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

it had been on the Beaver but a short time; so 
that at last it was quite insupportable, and led 
them to look out for a station further removed 
from the frontiers. Accordingly, on the 13th 
of April, 1773, the whole congregation, con- 
sisting at this time of not less than four hundred 
souls, broke up their settlement, leaving their 
dwellings and cultivated fields to go to ruin — 
esteeming all things as nothing in comparison 
with the enjoyment of their religious rites in 
peace. 

A number of the most hardy went directly 
across the wilderness by land with brother 
Rothe; but the larger portion traveled by 
water, in twenty-two large canoes, under the 
direction of brother Heckewelder — proceeding 
down the Beaver to the Ohio River, thence to 
the mouth of the Muskingum, and then up 
that stream to Gnadenhutten, or the "Tents 
of Grace;" which voyage was accomplished 
in three weeks, with great labor and fatigue. 
When the different portions of the Indian con- 



PROCEBDINQS OF 1774. 91 

greg.ation again met there was great joy and 
gladness. 

The town of Schocnbrunn was inhabited by 
the Delaware Indians, and Gnadenhutten by 
the Mohegans. Dwelling-houses, fields, gar- 
dens, and cattle were apportioned among the 
inhabitants according to their necessities; and 
all the comforts of civihzed life were in the 
course of a year or two within their reach. 
The labors of the missionaries were much 
blessed, and many converts added from the 
adjacent savages, who constantly visited the 
new settlements. 

PROCEEDINGS OF 1774. 

In the year 1774 a general war broke out 
between the Shawnees, Senecas, Mingoes, etc., 
and the whites; partly occasioned by the mur- 
der of the family of the celebrated Mingo chief, 
Logan, and partly from other difficulties. The 
hostile tribes, especially the Shawnees, used all 
their influence with the Delawares to draw them 



92 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

into the war; but their regard for the mission- 
aries, and their connection with the Christian 
Indians kept them quiet for the present. The 
Delawares had also promised the brethren be- 
fore they moved on to the Tuscarawas that 
they would not only be their friends, but pro- 
tect them from the hostilities of the other tribes. 
This act of kindness drew upon the Delawares 
the contempt of the other savages, who called 
them, by way of derision, "shwannoks," or 
whites, which so enraged the young warriors 
that they could ha^rdly be restrained from fall- 
ing on the new settlements. Even some of the 
older chiefs were so much vexed that they sent 
a formal embassy to the Shawnees, positively 
declaring that they would not be called " shwan- 
noks;" and if they were thus shamefully reviled 
on account of the white teachers who lived in 
their vicinity, they took this opportunity of 
saying they had no hand in it, and never in- 
tended to believe in their religion, or to live 
conformably to it; that they had never called 



PROCEEDINGS OF 1774. 93 

the believing Indians into their country, but 
only connived at its being done by some old 
fools among them. 

This latter assertion was a falsehood, and the 
message sent through fear; but the young war- 
riors were so much emboldened by it that they 
came in great troops to Schoenbrunn and Gna- 
denhutten, committing outrages, the conse- 
quences of which would have been fatal to 
the missions had not God in his mercy pro- 
tected them by his almighty hand. The mis- 
sionaries being hourly in danger of their lives, 
it was thought proper to send brother Rothe 
and his wife with their two infants to Bethle- 
hem, whither the Lord conducted them safely 
through many dangers. Canoes were kept in 
readiness for any sudden emergency — they be- 
ing often alarmed at niffht with threatened at- 
tacks. The sisters were several times driven 
at noonday from their plantations when at 
work, and all the inhabitants confined for 
days and weeks to their houses for fear of 



94 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

hostile parties watching in the neighborhood 
for stragglers. 

RELIEF OBTAINED. 

They were finally relieved from these troubles 
by the march of Lord Dunmore, Governor of 
Virginia, with a large army into the country 
of the Shawnees and Senecas, whose villages 
were destroyed, and their most influential chiefs 
taken as hostages. He also compelled them to 
give up all their white prisoners. This peace 
was the cause of great joy to the mission, and 
was celebrated by a public thanksgiving on the 
6th of November, with great solemnity. Their 
affairs also greatly prospered, and many new 
converts were added to the congregation. 

TRANSACTIONS OF 1775. 

The rest enjoyed by the Indian congregation 
was very gratifying. Many strangers visited 
the settlement at Schoenbrunn; so that the 
chapel, which would hold about five hundred 



A NEW TOWN BUILT BY THE DELAAVAllES. 95 

persons, was too small. A Mr. Richard Conner, 
a white man, -who had lived several years among 
the Shawnees, and his wife, joined them, and 
conformed to their rules and regulations. They 
had been living at Fort Pitt. Several influen- 
tial chiefs of the Delawares and Shawnees also 
united themselves to the congregation. In this 
year the war of the Revolution between Great 
Britain and the Colonies broke out, and was 
the commencement of much and lasting trouble 
to the missions. 

A NEW TOWN BUILT BY THE DELAWAKES. 

In the Spring of the year 1775 the Delaware 
tribe of Indians, who had lived for many years 
in the heads of the Tuscarawas River, removed 
their chief village to the outlet of that stream, 
opposite the mouth of the Walhonding, on the 
spot where the present town of Coshocton now 
stands. It was done under the direction of 
their old chief, Ne-ta-wat-wees. The new town 
was called Gosch-ach-gu-enk. Their old war- 



96 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

rior continued a firm friend to the missionaries 
and their cause as long as he lived. 

TRANSACTIONS OF 1776. 

In this year a reading and spelling book 
in the Delaware language was compiled by 
brother Zeisberger, and introduced into all the 
Indian schools, and gave great pleasure to the 
scholars. 

NEW STATION ESTABLISHED. 

In the Spring of 1776 a new station was 
established, at the request of the Delawares, on 
the east side of the Muskingum River, three 
miles below the mouth of the Walhonding, and 
called Lichtenau. On the 10th of April broth- 
ers Zeisberger and Heckewelder, with eight In- 
dian families, in all thirty-five- persons, went 
from Schoenbrunn to the spot proposed, and on 
the evening of their arrival met in the open air 
to praise the name of that Lord whom they in- 
tended to worship and serve in this place. 



NEW STATION ESTABLISHED. 97 

They first dwelt in huts, as usual in sucli 
emergencies; marked out the plantations and 
gardens for tlie town on the banks of the river, 
and built one street north and south, with the 
chapel in the center. They were assisted in 
their labor by many brethren from Schoenbrunn 
and Gnadenhutten, and by the old chief Ne-ta- 
wat-wees, who often came with a large party 
of his people from Gosch-asch-guenk to help 
them. Thus in a short time all our Indians 
who moved hither with their teachers left the 
huts and took possession of their houses. 

By the preaching of the Gospel many Indians 
became concerned for their salvation; and all 
who appeared to be in earnest were allowed to 
settle here, so that the place rapidly increased. 
Among the strangers was one who came from 
the River Illinois, a distance of a thousand 
miles, and appeared very thoughtful. At last 
he asked brother Zeisberger, "Do you think 
what you preach is true, and good for us?'* 
lie answered, "I preach the Word of God, 



98 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

whicli is truth, and will remain so to all eternity." 
He replied, " I can not believe it." 

This honest declaration pleased the mission- 
ary, and he explained to him that as soon as 
he should hear the Gospel and perceive its 
power, he would without hesitation acknowl- 
edge its truth. 

INDIAN BAPTISM. 

In July the nephew of the chief Ne-ta-wat- 
wees was baptized, and named John. He soon 
became an active and zealous Christian. The 
chief himself became very thoughtful about his 
own salvation, and said that he had made thir- 
teen notches in a stick, denoting the number 
of Sabbaths he had heard the Word of God in 
Lichtenau; and that when he looked at these 
notches, and thought how often he had heard 
of his Redeemer, he could not help weeping. 
The believing Indians at this time amounted to 
four hundred and fourteen persons. The war, 
still continuing, was the cause of a great deal 



INDIAN BAPTISM. 99 

of trouble to the missions. The ohl chief, 
Ne-ta-wat-wees, did all he could to preserve 
peace among the hostile Inthans by embassies 
and exhortations. But the Ilurons and Min- 
goes, instigated by the British at Detroit, were 
not to be deterred, but kept up continual hos- 
tilities with the white settlements in Virginia 
and Pennsylvania; and generally passing with 
their war parties and prisoners through some of 
the mission stations, gave them great trouble — 
they being always forced to furnish them with 
food on these occasions, whether willing or not. 
The American parties, with the Indians in their 
interest, generally traveled the same route; so 
that they were beset by both sides, and con- 
sidered as the friends of neither. The lives 
of the missionaries were often in danger from 
the hostile Indians, who several times came 
into their houses for the express purpose of 
killing them, but were always preserved by 
some providential interference. 



100 EARLY HISTORY OP THE NORTH-WEST. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE MORAVIAN MISSIONS — CONTINUED. 
TRANSACTIONS OF 1777. 

The Huron Indians having joined the British, 
and taken up the hatchet against the Ameri- 
cans, used all their influence with the Delawares 
to induce them to do the same. The Governor 
of Detroit could not understand why these In- 
dians were so firm in maintaining peace. At 
last it was ascribed to the influence of the mis- 
sionaries. To remove this difficulty it was pro- 
posed to seize three men and take them by 
force to Detroit; but it was not finally executed 
till the year 1781, as will hereafter appear. 
This year the troubles of the mission continued, 
and the accounts of the capture of Burgoyne's 
army by the Americans increased the difficulty. 
The Shawnees determined to go to war, and 



TRIALS OF THE MISSIONARIES. 101 

reports were received from all quarters tliat 
the savages intended to massacre the mission- 
aries, and then ^11 those Indians who would not 
join them in the wai*. 

TRIALS OF THE MISSIONARIES. 

Their severest trials, however, arose from 
the ill conduct of some of their own followers, 
who turned aside and joined the heathen In- 
dians. Among them was a chief named Ne- 
wal-le-ke, who declared that the Christian doc- 
trine was all a fable. Captain White Eyes, 
who did not belong to the Christian Indians, 
hearing this, answered : " You went to the 
brethren because you could find nothing in 
the world to set your heart at ease, and 
firmly believed you had found with them all 
you desired. These are the words I heard 
you speak, and now, being hardly begun, 
you give up already, and return to your 
former life. This is not acting the part of 
a man." 



102 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 
SCHOENBRUNN ABANDONED. 

The difficulties at Schoenbrunn increased so 
rapidly that the mission at that place was aban- 
doned in the night of April 3, 1777, and the 
people removed to Gnadenhutten and Lichtenau. 

THE DELAWARES CONCLUDE TO FIGHT. 

In the Fall of 1777 there was a report that 
an American general had arrived at Pittsburg, 
who would give no quarter to any Indian, 
whether friend or foe, being resolved to destroy 
them all. This was probably General M'Intosh. 
The report, although a fabrication of the hostile 
Indians, was the cause of the Delawares taking 
up arms; who alleged, in defense, that they 
must die whether they fought or not; and, as 
the Americans were daily expected, their war- 
riors joined the Hurons, who were still near 
Lichtenau, and had threatened to destroy it, 
but were turned aside by the presents of food 
and kind usage of the Christian Indians. 



ALARMS OP THE CHRISTIAN INDIANS. 103 



ALARMS OF THE CHRISTIAN INDIANS. 

September 17th an express arrived at Gna- 
dcnliutten, with an account of the approach of 
the white troops. The congregation immediately 
fled with their teachers in canoes, to a spot on 
the Walhonding River, before agreed on ; but in 
such haste as to leave the greater part of their 
goods behind. While hourly expecting to hear 
of a bloody battle, an express came in saying 
that what they had supposed to be the enemy 
was only a great number of horses in the woods. 
They remained there the 18th, and then re- 
turned. On the 23d a message arrived from 
the American general at Fort Pitt, and Colonel 
Morgan, assuring the Indians they had nothing 
to fear from the Americans. But before the 
truth was known, a report was again spread 
that the American troops were in the neighbor- 
hood, and every one was preparing to escape. 
Brother Zeisberger assembled them at midnight, 
and made known the true account from Fort 



104 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

Pitt, when they all went cheerfully to rest. The 
Delawares also returned to their former policy 
of peace. 

ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE HURONS AND WHITES. 

In October an action took place between a 
party of Hurons and a troop of American free- 
booters, who went, contrary to the orders of the 
general at Fort Pitt, to destroy the Delaware 
town, and the mission stations among the rest. 
They were defeated by the Half King, who 
killed the greater part of them. 

PROGRESS OF THE MISSION. 

During this season of calamity, when the 
spirit of murder and the powers of darkness 
greatly prevailed, the work of God proceeded 
unmolested among the Indians, and many con- 
versions took place — cheering evidences of the 
favor of Heaven and the faithfulness of the 
missionaries. The war still continuing between 
the United States and Great Britain, finally 



CRUELTY OF THE INDIANS. 105 

involved nearly all the Western tribes in the con- 
test^ and gave immense trouble to the Moravian 
Indians, by the passing of war parties through 
their towns, often carrying captives and scalps. 
The Christian Indians, however, uniformly treated 
them with kindness. 

CRUELTY OF THE INDIANS. 

Among these prisoners was an old man of 
venerable appearance and two youths. The 
Christian Indians greatly pitied the old man, 
and offered a large sum to his captors for his 
release, but they refused. When they reached 
their village the two young men were tortured 
and burned alive. The old man was condemned 
to suffer the same treatment ; but being informed 
by a child of his fate he contrived to escape, 
and seizing a horse fled into the woods. The 
savages pursued, but he arrived safely in the 
vicinity of Lichtenau, quite famished witli hun- 
ger, having eaten nothing for ten days but a 
little bark and herbs. An Inchan brother found 



106 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

Mm in the woods, looking more like a dead 
than a living man, and brought him with much 
trouble into town, where he was carefully nursed. 
He exclaimed, "Merciful God, be praised that 
thou hast brought me, wretched creature, to a 
Christian people. If it be thy will that I die 
in this place I am happy and contented." He 
finally recovered and was brought to Fort Pitt. 

REMOVAL FROM GNADENHUTTEN. 

Most of these troubles were centered at Lich- 
tenau. Freebooters belonging to the whites in- 
fested every quarter, and endangered the lives 
of our Indians. They were, therefore, invited 
to come and settle at Lichtenau for the present, 
and removed there in April, 1778. Thus three 
Indian congregations Hved on one spot. The 
chapel was enlarged and new houses built. 

EFFORTS OF THE BRITISH. 

The Governor at Detroit still continued to 
use all his influence with the Delaware Indians 



PRESERVATION OF TUE MISSION. 107 

to engage them in the war, inasmuch as several 
Other tribes, who considered themselves as de- 
scendants" of the Delawares, and called that 
tribe their grandfather, were waiting to see 
what they would do, being greatly influenced 
by the opinions of the Delawares. They, how- 
ever, continued firm in preserving peace at 
present, listening to the counsel of the mission- 
aries, and to that of the Christian Indians, who 
all strongly deprecated war. 

PRESERVATION OF THE MISSION. 

In the Summer of 1778, they received cer- 
tain intelligence that the Governor of Detroit 
was about to send a party of Indians and En- 
glish soldiers to carry them off. This plan was 
frustrated by the death of the commander, and 
it was some time before liis place could be filled 
with another. The hostile Indians were charged 
to bring the missionaries, dead or alive, which 
they promised to do ; but happily they neglected 
to fulfill their promise. 



108 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 



TRANSACTIONS OF 1779. 

In the Summer of the year 1779 danger 
began to thicken around the peaceable habita- 
tions of the mission. An army, composed of 
English and Indians, marched from Detroit to 
attack Fort Laurens on the Tuscarawas, and 
also to take the missionaries prisoners; but on 
their way the news of an attack by the Ameri- 
cans on some of the Indian 'towns reached them, 
which caused all the Indians to leave the British 
officer; and thus the attack was abandoned. 
That word of Scripture, "The Lord bringeth 
the councils of the heathen to naught, he 
maketh the devices of the people of none 
effect," was often fulfilled. 

PLOTS AGAINST THE MISSIONARIES. 

The Half King of the Hurons cautioned 
the missionaries to be upon their guard, for a 
plot was formed against their lives, especially 
brother Zeisberger — some mahcious persons tak- 



KINDNESS OF COLONEL GIBSON. 109 

iiig great pains to spread a report that this 
missionary ^Yas going over to the Americans 
Vvith all the baptized IneUans. But to all these 
rumors this heroic missionary paid little atten- 
tion, trusting in God, and attending strictly to 
the welfare of the mission. A white renegade, 
who headed a party of' eight Mingoes, robbers 
and murderers, met Zeisberger, with two Indian 
brethren, one day in the woods, while passing 
from one station to another. As soon as he saw 
him he called to his companions, " See, here is 
the man we have long been wishing to see and 
secure; do now as you think proper!" The 
captain of the Mingoes shook his head, but said 
nothing in reply. After a few questions they 
marched oif. All the reports about this time 
agreed in this, that the destruction of the mis- 
sion stations was resolved upon. 

KINDNESS OF COLONEL GIBSON. 

In the Summer of 1779 Colonel Gibson, the 
commander of Fort Laurens, gave tlie mission- 



110 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

aries an invitation to remove witli their congre- 
gations to the fort, or to settle in its vicinity. 
This kind offer they declined, for the reason 
that the war was always most violent near the 
forts. 

SALEM BUILT. 

In the year 1780 the robberies, outrages, 
and drunkenness of the savages about Lich- 
tenau became so great, that it was thought best 
to abandon it and build a new town five miles 
below Gnadenhutten, which they called Salem, 
or the City of Peace. Accordingly, on the thir- 
tieth of March the last meeting was held here, 
and all the congregation united in praising God 
for the many blessings received at that place. 
The chapel was pulled down, according to their 
usual custom when abandoning any settlement, 
probably to prevent its profanation by the 
heathen savages, or to prevent its being ap- 
plied to any other use. The congregation 
embarked with their effects in canoes, and pro- 



CHEERING APPEARANCE OP THE CHURCH. Ill 

ceeded by water to Salem; which, although 
only twenty miles above Lichtenau, occupied a 
whole week in rowing against the stream, tho 
river at this season of the year being generally 
at its highest stage, and of a very rapid cuiTcnt. 
By the assistance of the brethren from Schoen- 
brunn and Gnadenhutten, the settlement pro- 
gressed rapidly, and by the 22d of May the 
new chapel was ready to be consecrated. On 
the 23d they partook of the holy sacrament of 
the Lord's Supper, and on the 28th baptism was 
administered for the first time at Salem. In 
December, 1780, the dwelling-houses were all 
finished. 

CHEERING APPEARANCE OF THE CHURCH. 

Brothers Heckewelder and Jung had the 
charge of the congregation. The spiritual state 
of the Church was very favorable, and the labor 
of the Holy Ghost in their hearts so manifest, 
that the missionaries forgot all their sufferings 
for joy. During the public sermons there was 

I 



112 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-AYEST. 

frequently such a general emotion and weeping, 
that the preacher was obliged to stop till they 
became more calm. This good spirit was par- 
ticularly manifest in the sick and dying, many 
of whose deaths were wonderfully triumphant. 
Among others was an old man more than one 
hundred years of age, for he remembered the 
time when the first house was built in the city 
of Philadelphia, in the year 1682, in which he 
had been a boy. 

About this time Captain White Eyes, who 
had so often advised other Indians with great 
earnestness to believe in the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ, but who had always postponed joining 
the believers himself, on account of his being 
entangled in political concerns, died suddenly 
at Fort Pitt, of the small-pox. His wife had 
been a behever for some years. 

ADDITIONAL MISSIONARIES. 

In May, 1780, brother Grube, then minister 
of Litiz, in Pennsylvania, came out to hold a 



ADDITIONAL MISSIONARIES. 



1/3 



visitation to the Indian congregations on the 
Tuscarawas. Brother Senseman and his wife 
came in his company, as Hkewise the single 
sister, Sarah Ohneburgh, who afterward married 
brother John Heckewelder. They traveled over 
the ranges of the Alleghany and Laurel Mount- 
ains, which was excessively fatiguing at that 
early day, and especially to brother Grube, who 
had been hurt by the kick of a horse. At Fort 
Piit he preached the Gospel to a congregation 
of Germans, and baptized several children, no 
ordained clergyman being then a resident there. 
From there the Indian brethren conducted him 
and his company safely to Gnadenhutten. The 
Governor of Fort Pitt, Colonel Broadliead, and 
Colonel Gibson, treated them with great kind-' 
ness. The latter gave them a travehng tent, 
and assisted them in many things necessary for 
their safe conveyance, as the route was at that 
time infested with hostile Indians. And what 
was still worse, three white men who Avere seek- 
ing to get Indian scalps, a large premium being 
s 



114 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

then given for them, lay in ambush near the 
road and shot at one of the Christian Indians, 
who was a little before brother Grube and his 
company. Providentially the ball passed only 
through his shirt sleeve, and the other Indians 
taking the alarm, the men who lay in wait 
jumped up and run off. On the 30th of June 
the whole company reached Schoenbrunn, to the 
great joy of the missionaries and their congre- 
gations. Brother Grube visited and preached 
at all the stations, and in the following August 
returned to his own people in Litiz. 

BIRTH OP THE FIRST WHITE CHILD. 

The marriage of John Heckewelder and Sarah 
*Ohneburgh must have been consummated shortly 
after her arrival at the missionary station, as 
their first child was born the 16th of April, 
1781. This child was a daughter, and is still 
living in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and was 
probably the first white child born within the 
present bounds of Ohio. 



ATTACK ON THE MISSIONARIES. 115 

TRANSACTIONS OF 1781. 

In July the missionaries, Zeisberger and 
Jungman, arrived safe Avith their wives, and the 
joy of the Indians was like that of children at 
the return of beloved parents. Brother Zeis- 
berger had gone in the Spring to Bethlehem, 
for the purpose of bringing out a wife. Whom 
he married does not appear; but females who 
could venture so far in the wilderness among 
hostile savages must have possessed the spirit 
of a Deborah, and the courage of Miriam. 

ATTACK ON THE MISSIONARIES. 

On the 10th of August, 1781, the long- 
threatened arrest of the missionaries approached 
a crisis. The jealousy of the Governor of De- 
troit, Arend Scuiler de Peyster, still continuing 
against the Moravian missions, the Indian agent 
at the great council of the Iroquois, or Five 
Nations, held at Niagara, requested thorn to 
take up the Christian Indians and their teach- 



116 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 



UOIS 



ers and carry tliem away. This the Iroq 
agreed to do; but, not choosmg to do it them- 
selves, sent a message to the Chippewas and 
Ottawas, that they made them a present of the 
Indian congregation "to make soup of," as 
much as to say, murder them. The Chippewas 
and Ottawas refused, saying they had no reason 
for so doing. The same message was then sent 
to the Hurons, at the instigation of Captain 
Pipes, a Delaware Indian, very hostile to the 
missionaries. The Hurons accepted the invita- 
tion, and after a great feast, at which they 
roasted a ^ whole ox, they began to put the 
plan, very secretly, into execution — but under 
the pretense of friendship and to save the 
Christian Indians from the dangers which sur- 
rounded them. Accordingly on the 10th of 
Auo-ust they made their appearance at Gnaden- 
hutten, to the number of three hundred war- 
riors, headed by an English officer, with the 
Half King of the Hurons and Captain Pipes, 
bearing the standard of Great Britain. 



INTERFERENCE OF A SORCERER. 117 

The Christian Indians treated thera kindly, 
and gave them plenty of provisions of the best 
they had. The behavior of the British officer 
and the savages was at first friendly; but when 
the missionaries declined going with them im- 
mediately to Sandusky — the spot proposed for 
their exile — but chose to remain where they 
were till their crops of corn, potatoes, etc., 
could be gathered to prevent famine in the 
Winter, they became very abusive, and insisted 
on their going immediately, pretending they 
had an abundance of food for the supply of 
them all at that place. The Indian chiefs were 
willing for them to remain, but the British 
officer was so importunate, and threatened them 
with the displeasure of the Governor, that they 
at length consented to take them by force. 

INTERFERENCE OF A SORCERER. 

At one consultation, as they afterward re- 
lated, they had decided on killing all the white 
brethren and sisters; but before putting it in 



118 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

execution they consulted one of the warriors, 
who was accounted a great sorcerer, as to the 
consequences which might follow from the act, 
as all savages consider the character of priests 
as sacred. He answered, this would only in- 
crease the evil, for the most influential of the 
believers would still remain. They held an- 
other council, in which they decided on kilhng 
.the assistant teachers as ,well as the mission- 
aries and their wives, and again consulted the 
sorcerer. He answered: "You have resolved 
to kill my dearest friends; but if you hurt one 
of them I- know what I will do." His threats 
alarmed them and they gave up the design. 

FURTHER AGGRESSIONS. 

The savages soon became very insolent, and, 
although supplied with all the meat they needed, 
commenced shooting the cattle and hogs in the 
streets, and would not allow their carcasses to 
be removed, so that the stench soon became 
quite insupportable. 



FURTHER AGGRESSIONS. 119 

I* 

On the second day of September the mission- 
aries, Zeisberger, Senseman, and Hecke welder, 
were summoned before a council of war, who 
insisted on an immediate answer, whether they 
would leave the place or not. On their declin- 
ing to go, they were seized by a party of 
llurons, and declared prisoners of war. As 
they were dragged along to the camp, an In- 
dian aimed a blow with a lance at brother Sen- 
seman' s head, but missed his aim. When they 
were in the camp the death-song was sung 
over them, and the missionaries stripped of 
their clothing to their shirts. While this was 
doing a party rushed into the missionaries' 
dweUing-houses, and plundered and destroyed 
their furniture, books, papers, etc. They were 
all now led into the tent of the British officer, 
who, seeing their distress, expressed some com- 
passion, and said this treatment was against 
his intention, although he had orders to take 
them by force if they refused to go willingly. 
They were next led to the Huron camp and 



120 EARLY HISTORY OP THE NORTH-WEST. 

confined in two huts. After they were thus 
secured they saw a party of warriors march 
off for Salem and Schoenbrunn, which caused 
them much uneasiness as to what their famiUes 
might suffer. In the dusk of the evening they 
broke open the mission-house, and took Michael 
Jung, and sister Heckewelder and her child 
prisoners. Mr. Jung narrowly escaped the blow 
of a tomahawk aimed at his head. Having 
plundered the house, they brought brother Jung, 
about midnight, to Gnadenhutten, and shut him 
up with the other missionaries. Mrs. Hecke- 
welder and child they left at Salem, at the 
earnest entreaty of the Indian sisters, Avhen 
she and her child were safely conducted up by 
the Christian Indians next morning. During 
the same night some Hurons, who seem to have 
taken the lead in mischief, came to Schoen- 
brunn, and broke open the mission-house, tak- 
ing brother Jung and his wife, and sisters 
Zeisberger and Senseman out of their beds. 
The house was plundered of its furniture, the 



CONDUCT OF THE BELIEVING INDIANS. 121 

beds ripped open and feathers tlirown out, and 
the church robbed of every thing valuable; 
when they put all into canoes and returned 
to Gnadenhutten. Sister Senseman had been 
brought to bed three nights previously, and 
was now hurried off by these merciless barba- 
rians in a dark and rainy night. But God, 
who does all things well, suffered not her or 
the child to receive any injury, by imparting 
to her an uncommon degree of strength and 
fortitude. Early on the morning of the fourth 
day, they led this company into Gnadenhutten, 
singing the death-song. The day following the 
prisoners were allowed to see each other and 
converse, when their resignation and composure 
greatly moved the savages. 

CONDUCT OF THE BELIEVING INDIANS. 

In the beginning of these troubles, the be- 
havior of the believing Indians much resembled 
that of the disciples of our blessed Savior; 
they forsook their teachers and fled. When 



122 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

they got together in the woods, they wept so 
loud that the air resounded with their lamenta- 
tions. But soon recovering from their fright, 
they returned and assisted the missionaries all 
they could; recovering many of their articles 
by purchase or persuasion from the savages, 
and bringing them blankets to cover them by 
night, and fetching them again early in the 
morning lest the Hurons should steal them. 

MAGNANIMITY OF AN INDIAN FEMALE. 

Amid all this cruel and vicious conduct of 
the Hurons, there was found one heart that 
^commiserated their sufferings. A young wo- 
man of this tribe, who witnessed the cruel 
conduct of her countrymen, said to an Indian 
sister, she should never forget this abuse, nor 
could she sleep all night for distress. Ani- 
mated by the most generous feelings, early 
that evening she got possession of a very 
active horse belonging to Captain Pipes, and 
entirely alone rode all night through the wilder- 



EXILE OF THE MISSIONARIES. 123 

uess. Before noon the next day she reached 
Fort Pitt, Avhere she gave an account of the 
danger of the missionaries and of their congre- 
gations, urging an immediate attempt for their 
release. She had been gone but a short time 
when the Indians were informed of it, and 
made instant pursuit; but so bold was her 
riding, and so active the animal she bestrode, 
that they could not get within sight of her, 
and gave up the chase. The Hurons were 
greatly enraged with the missionaries, believing 
they had hired her to bring the Americans to 
their rescue. The commander at Fort Pitt, it 
seems, had determined to send a force to their 
rescue, but was providentially prevented; which 
was fortunate for the missionaries, as they would 
probably have been killed on the first appear- 
ance of the Americans. 

EXILE OF THE MISSIONARIES. 

After four days' imprisonment, tliey were 
allowed to join their congregations; but find- 



124 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

ing the Hiirons were determined continually to 
harass them till they removed, they finally 
concluded to emigrate. Accordingly on the 
11th of September, 1781, they abandoned their 
three towns of Schoenbrunn, Gnadenhutten, and 
Salem, with much heaviness of heart and great 
regret, leaving in them the larger portion of 
their possessions. They had already lost more 
than two hundi-ed head of cattle, and four 
hundred hogs; and now left three hundred 
acres of corn almost ready for harvesting, be- 
sides large stores of old corn, with cabbages, 
potatoes, garden fruits, etc. At a moderate 
calculation their loss was above twelve thou- 
sand dollars. But that which most grieved 
them was the loss of all their books and writ- 
ings in the Delaware language, compiled for the 
instruction of the Indian youth. These were 
all burned by the savages, who hated every 
thing that tended to turn them from the heathen 
practices of their forefathers. A troop of Hu- 
rons, commanded by British officers, escorted 



SEVERITIES OF THE JOURNEY. 125 

tlicm, inclosing them on every side, for the 
distance of some miles. Their course lay along 
the shores of the llivcr Walhonding, some in 
canoes, and some by land, on the route to 
Sandusky Creek. Owing to the hurry and con- 
fusion a number of the canoes sunk, and the 
travelers in them lost all their provisions, and 
articles saved from the sack of their towns. 
The number of exiles was about five hundred. 
The emigrants by land drove the cattle, a 
pretty large herd, collected from Schoenbrunn 
and Salem. Altliough the fatigues and suffer- 
ings of the journey were very great, yet broth- 
erly love prevailed in the congregation, and 
daily meetings were held for prayer. 

SEVERITIES OF THE JOURNEY. 

At Goskhosink, or Owl Creek, so named from 
the great number of those birds formerly found 
there, the exiles left their canoes and all went 
by land. The savages now drove them on like 
a herd of cattle, whipping the horses of the 



126 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

missionaries, and often not allowing the females 
time to nurse their children. The road much 
of the way led through swampy ground, making 
it very tedious and wearisome traveling. 

SANDUSKY CREEK. 

On the 11th of October they reached San- 
dusky Creek, about one hundi^ed and twenty- 
five miles from Gnadenhutten. Here the Huron 
Indians left them,^ in the midst of the wilder- 
ness, where there was little or no game, nor 
any provisions, as they had promised there 
should be. After roving about some days, they 
finally fixed on Upper Sandusky to spend the 
Winter, and built small huts of bark and logs. 
They were nearly destitute of blankets, and 
the provisions they had brought with them ex- 
hausted — the savages having stolen every thing 
from them on the journey, only leaving them a 
few kettles for cooking. During the building 
of the huts, the evening meetings were held in 
the open air, by large fires, for they could not 



ORDERED TO DETROIT. 127 

live ^vitliout their social meetings for prayer, 
any more than they could ^vithout food. They 
often thought of the Israelites in the wilder- 
ness, and of that bread by Avhich they "were 
fed from Heaven. In these straits a few of 
the missionaries and Indian brethren returned 
to the settlements on the Tuscarawas to collect 
some of the corn left in the fields, and trans- 
port all this long distance; a journey full as 
tiresome as that of the children of Jacob into 
Egypt to buy corn of Joseph. 

THE MISSIONARIES ORDERED TO DETROIT. 

The last of October, the Governor of Detroit 
sent a message to the missionaries, directing 
them to come to him. The brethren Ziesberger, 
Heckewelder, Senseman, and Edwards, with -four 
Indian assistants, went on this journey, while 
Jungman and Michael Jung remained with the 
congregation at Sandusky. They reached De- 
troit the 3d of November. At first, the Gov- 
ernor, Arcnd Scuiler de Peyster, used them 



128 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

harshly; accusing them of carrying on a cor- 
respondence with his enemies, the Americans. 
Captain Pipe, their old enemy, appeared as their 
accuser; but as he could substantiate none of 
his charges, the Governor allowed them to return 
to the Indian converts, but would not suffer 
them to go back to Gnadenhutten. He, more- 
over, redeemed four of their watches from the 
Pluron Indians, which they had sold to the 
traders, gave them new clothes, and kindly 
entertained them at his own house ; and finally 
dismissed them with many good wishes. They 
reached Sandusky the 22d of November, to the 
great joy of the poor Indians. 

SUFFERINGS DURING THE WINTER. 

That Winter they suffered greatly from fam- 
ine and cold, and would have fared still worse, 
but for the kindness of two Indian traders, 
vM'Cormick and Robbins, who bought corn for 
them and assisted them all 'in their power. 
By the 1st of December they had built a new 



SUFFERINGS DURING THE WINTER. 129 

chapel, in Tvliich tliey celebrated Christmas ; but, 
having neither bread nor wine, could not keep 
the holy communion. In January and February 
many of their cattle died from hunger, and the 
severity of the cold. The famine also increased 
among the Indians, who had to support life by 
digging for ground-nuts, a species of wild po- 
tato, and the carcasses of the dead cattle. Prov- 
identially many deer came into their neighbor- 
hood during the cold weather and were killed 
by the hunters. The missionaries fared no 
better than their con2^ren;ation, and were often 
dependent on them for a meal of ground-nuts, 
having nothing in their huts of their own. 



130 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 



CHAPTER YII. 

THE MORAVIAN MISSIONS — CONTINUED. 
VISIT OF THE HURONS. 

During this miserable situation the Half 
King of the Hurons, with a retinue of savages 
and white people, made them a visit. One of 
the Chi'istian Indians went to him and told him 
there was no meat to be had but that of the 
dead cattle, and added, "Formerly, whenever 
you came to Gnadenhutten, we gave you not 
only enough to eat, but if you desired sugar, 
bread, butter, milk, pork, beef, or any other 
article, we always gave it to you and to your 
warriors. But you bade us rise and go with 
you, and that we needed not to mind leaving our 
plantations, for we should find enough to Hve 
on here. Now, if any one catches a bird, or 
any other animal, his first care is to get food 



FURTHER TROUBLES OF THE MISSION. 131 

for it; but you have brought us hither and 
never oflfered a grain of corn to any of us. 
Thus you have obtained your whole aim, and 
may rejoice that we are perishing for want." 
The Half King seemed struck with the reproof, 
and went away in silence. 

FURTHER TROUBLES OF THE MISSION. 

At the instigation of the Hurons, and other 
heathen savages, w^ho were determined to break 
up the mission, and disperse the Christian In- 
dians, the Governor of Detroit, on the 1st of 
March, 1782, again summoned the missionaries 
to appear before him, with their families. The 
Indian congregation were overwhelmed with 
grief, for they felt when they were gone, that 
they would be a flock without a shepherd, in 
the midst of ravenous wolves. The mission- 
aries also felt that they would rather die than 
leave their charge, but there was no alternative. 
They were compelled to abandon their homes 
uiid take up their march through the wilderness. 



132 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 



MASSi\CRE AT GNADENHUTTEX. 

The day before they started on their journey, 
a warrior from the Muskingum brought the 
distressing news of the murder of ninety-three 
of their congregation, who had gone back to 
the deserted villages on the Tuscarawas for the 
purpose of collecting corn for their starving 
relatives. While there a party of Americans 
under the command of Colonel Williamson, from 
the Mingo Bottoms on the Ohio, surprised and 
took them prisoners, and afterward put them all 
to death. Tliis transaction took place on the 
8th of March, and for cool-blooded atrocity 
has no parallel in the whole circle of American 
history. The particulars of this horrid transac- 
tion have been often before the public, and need 
not be again detailed to tarnish the fame of 
Western borderers. In aaitigation of the above 
wickedness, it may be stated that in the council 
held by the borderers as to the fate of their 
prisoners, a majority voted for murdering them 



MASSACRE AT GNADENHUTTEN. 133 

the next day, ^vllile a large minority were op- 
posed to it, and called God to witness that they 
were innocent of the blood of these harmless 
Christian Indians. To describe the grief and 
horror of the Indian congregation at Sandusky, 
on receiving the news of the murder of their 
friends, is impossible. Parents mourned the loss 
of children, husbands their wives, and wives their 
husbands; childi'en for their parents, brothers 
for their sisters, and sisters for their brothers, 
in one wide, weltering stream of woe. And 
now having lost their teachers who used to 
sympathize with them, and strengthen them in 
their reliance on the faithfulness of God, their 
grief was nearly insupportable. But they mur- 
mured not, nor did they call for vengeance on 
their murderers, but prayed for them. Their 
only consolation was the belief that their mur- 
dered relatives were now in heaven. The mur- 
derers themselves acknowledged that they were 
good Indians, for said they, "they sung and 
prayed to then* last breath." 



134 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 



DEPARTURE OF THE MISSIONARIES. 

On the 15tli of March the missionaries, with 
many tears, took leave of the remnant of their 
congregation, for so many years under their 
charge; one part of which was about to be 
imprisoned, another part already mui'dered, and 
the remainder in danger of being dispersed and 
forsaken. In this journey the missionaries were 
conducted by a Frenchman, in place of the 
British officer. 

DISPERSION OP THE CHRISTIAN INDIANS. 

The Indians left at Sandusky, after the de- 
parture of the missionaries, living in continual 
fear of their lives, dispersed among the adjacent 
tribes, and some to the River Maumee. It was 
providential that they did so ; for early in May 
their station was visited by another party of 
white men, for the purpose of destroying them, 
only a short time after their departure; but 
venturing too far into the Indian country were 



NEW GNADENHUTTEN. 135 

themselves attacked and defeated, and one of 
their commanders, Colonel Crawford, taken and 
burnt alive at the stake. Colonel Williamson 
died in jail, in Washington, Pennsylvania. 

NEW GNADENHUTTEN. 

In July the missionaries obtained liberty from 
the Governor to make a settlement on the 
Huron River, thirty miles from Detroit, and 
soon collected a part of their congregation 
around them — so loth were these good men 
to leave the poor Indians, although repeatedly 
offered the chance of returning to Pennsylvania. 
The settlement on Huron River they called 
New Gnadenhutten. The Governor and his 
wife, whose hearts had become tender on see- 
ing the sufferings and faithfulness of the mis- 
sionaries, assisted them in many things Acces- 
sary for their comfort, and in building the new 
town. The 20th of July the missionaries, Zeis- 
berger and Jungman, with their wives, and the 
single missionaries, Edwards and Jung, left 



136 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

Detroit, with nineteen Indian brethren and 
sisters, and crossing over Lake St. Clair, set- 
tled the next day on the south side of Huron 
River, not far from the mouth. The mission- 
aries, Heckewelder and Senseman, with their 
families, remained at Detroit, with the rest of 
the believino; Indians, to attend to the concerns 
of the reviving mission in that place. Here 
they laid out gardens and plantations, built 
huts of bark, and maintained themselves by- 
hunting and fishing. The forests were filled 
with sycamore, beech, ash, lime, oak, poplar, 
maple, and hickory trees, with the largest sas- 
safras they had seen any where. Wild hemp 
grew in abundance, but salt was scarce, and 
could not be had even for money. They there- 
fore thought themselves highly blessed when 
they discovered some salt springs, which yielded 
them an abundant supply. There were also 
springs of fresh water in plenty. In the begin- 
ning they were much tormented by musketoes 
and other insects, so that they had to keep up 



NEW GNADENHUTTEN. 137 

and sleep in a thick smoke. But they gradually 
lessened in numbers as the ground became 
cleared. In August they commenced to build, 
and finished a street of block houses, and by 
the 21st of September moved into their new 
house and celebrated the Lord's Supper to the 
great comfort of the congregation. Others of 
their old flock gradually joined them, and were 
kindly treated by the inhabitants of Detroit as 
they passed through on their way to the new 
station. The Governor also suppUed them with 
fdod till they could raise their own. In the 
Autumn some Chippewa Indians visited them, 
but as to the Gospel they only listened to it in 
silence. They are generally a peaceable tribe, 
but very indolent; plant but little corn; live 
chiefly by hunting; boil acorns for bread to 
their meat, and, like the Calmuc Tartars, eat 
the flesh of dead horses. By the middle of 
November fifty-three Indians had rejoined them. 
The Whiter was passed in comparative comfort; 
the Indians bartering their skins and venison, 



138 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

obtained in hunting, for corn at Detroit. They 
also made baskets, canoes, etc., for sale. In 
the Spring a large quantity of maple sugar was 
manufactured. 

NEWS OF PEACE. 

In May, 1783, the missionaries received the 
joyful news of peace between England and the 
United States. In the course of the year 
forty-three more of the scattered congregation 
joined them; but many were kept back by the 
influence and discouragements of the heathen 
savages, among whom they had taken shelter. 
The new chapel was consecrated, and their 
spiritual comforts were greatly multiplied. 

TRANSACTIONS OF 1784. 

In the beginning of the year a most extra- 
ordinary frost set in, extending over all that 
country. All the rivers and lakes were frozen, 
and the oldest inhabitants of Detroit did not 
remember ever to have seen such a deep fall 



FAMINE AT NEW GNADENHUTTEN. ' 139 

of snow. In many places it lay five or six 
feet deep, and was the cause of much suffer- 
ing. The 6th of March it was still four feet 
deep. About the end of the month it began 
to melt, but the ice on Huron River did not 
break till the 4th of April, and Lake St. Clair 
was not free in the beginning of May. 

FAMINE AT NEW GNADENHUTTEN. 

As no one expected so long a Winter, no 
provision was made adequate to the wants of 
man or beast. The early frosts in the preced- 
ing Autumn had destroyed a large portion of 
the crops of corn, so that the Indians soon 
began to suffer. It was very dear at Detroit, 
and the bakers refused to sell bread at a dollar 
per pound. The deep snow prevented hunting. 
The Indians had to seek their food wherever 
they could find it, and some lived on noth- 
ing but wild herbs. At length a general fam- 
ine prevailed, and the hollow eyes and sunken 
cheeks of the poor people bore sad tokens of 



140 ^ARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

their distress; yet they appeared resigned and 
cheerfal, and God in due time relieved them. 
A large herd of deer strayed unexpectedly into 
the neighborhood of their town, of which the 
Indians killed above a hundred. This they 
accomplished by walking over the deep sno^v 
on snow-shoes, which are a kind of racket 
made of a hoop, across which are stretched 
thongs of deer-skin, in such a way as to sup- 
port the wearer from sinking into the snow. 
A part of this venison was bartered for corn 
at Detroit, so that they did not suffer to that 
extremity they had done in 1781 at Sandusky. 
As soon as the snow melted, they went in 
search of wild potatoes, and came home loaded 
with them. They are a farinaceous and very 
nourisliing article of food. When the ice was 
gone they caught a great number of fishes. 
Bilberries were their next resource, of which 
they gathered great quantities, soon after which 
-theu' crops of Indian corn were ready for roast- 
ing ears, of which God blessed them with a 



I 



Progress op new gnadeniiutten. 141 

very great crop, so that no one lacked for any 
thing. 

PROGRESS OF NEW GNADENHUTTEN. 

The industry of the Christian Indians had 
now rendered this pLace a very pleasant and 
regular town. The houses were all well built, 
as if they intended to live and die in them; 
the country, formerly a wilderness, was now 
cultivated to that extent that it afforded a suf- 
ficient maintenance for them. The rest now 
enjoyed was particularly sweet after such ter- 
rible scenes of trouble and distress. But to- 
ward the end of the year 1784 it appeared 
that they would also be obliged to quit this 
place. The Chippewas complained of their set- 
tling on their lands, and said they only ex- 
pected them to remain till peace was restored; 
and threatened to murder some of them in order 
to force the others to depart. The new Gov- 
ernor of Detroit, Major /Vncrom, also sent them 
word not to clear any more laud, as nothing 



142 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

was yet settled as to the bounds of tlie terri- 
tory or government. The missionaries, there- 
fore, concluded it most prudent to make prepa- 
ration for returning to the south side of Lake 
Erie — they being now on the north side, in 
Canada — and to settle on the River Walhonding, 
or at their old stations. 

TRANSACTIONS OF 1785. 

In the course of this year the spiritual con- 
cerns" of the Indian congregation were very fa- 
vorable; so that they were filled with joy and 
consolation after so many outward troubles. 

RAVAGES OF THE WOLVES. 

During the Winter the wolves were very 
troublesome, traversing the country in packs, 
and tore a Chippewa Indian man and his wife 
to pieces near the settlement. One of the In- 
dian brethren was chased by them for several 
miles on the ice, but having skates on his feet 
escaped. The missionaries also lost all their 



PROCEEDINGS AT NEW GNADENHUTTEN. 143 

horses by their eatmg a certain juicy plant, 
which proved a deadly poison. 

PROCEEDINGS AT NEW GNADENHUTTEN. 

Although they had begun to make prepara- 
tion for moving, yet from the unsettled state of 
the savages they concluded it best to stay this 
season, and raise one more crop on the Huron. 
In May the missionaries, Jungman and Sense- 
man, returned with their famihes to Bethlehem 
by the way of the lakes and the Mohawk River, 
and left the mission under the care of brothers 
Zeisberger, Heckewelder, and Edwards. 

In July brother Edwards went to Fort Pitt, 
where he learned that Congress had reserved 
lands at their old settlements on the Tuscarawas 
for the use of the mission, and had directed the 
Surveyor- General to measure them off as much 
land as he might think they needed. This, how- 
ever, was not accomplished till after the close of 
the Indian war in 1705, when they received four 
thousand acres at each of their old settlements, 



144 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

making twelve thousand acres. This news gave 
great joy to the congregation. One thing after 
another delayed their return; and now the 
Delawares and ShaAvnees, being at war with 
the Americans, declared they would prevent 
their going back by force. 

THE CHIPPEWAS ORDER THEM AWAY. 

Early in the year 1786 the missionaries re- 
ceived another message from the Chippewa 
chief on whose territories they were living, 
stating his determination that they should re- 
main there no longer; and, besides this, a band 
of murderers and robbers of the Chippewa tribe 
rendered the whole neighborhood very unsafe. 
The missionaries therefore concluded, notwith- 
standing the threats of the savages in the 
vicinity of the Tuscarawas, to remove there, 
and take possession of their old settlements, 
and if they could not accomplish it this Spring, 
to settle in the first convenient place they could 
find. The new commander of Detroit, Major 



DEPARTURE FROM NEW GNADLMiUTTEN. 145 

Aiicrom, approvtjd this plan, and offered them 
vessels and provisions to carry them to the 
mouth of Cuyahoga River, whence the com- 
munication is easy to the heads of the Tus- 
carawas. He also assisted them in sclIiiifT^ 

o 

their improvements for a small sum of money; 
so that their labor was not entirely lost. They 
accepted this kind offer thankfully, and as a 
gracious interference of tke Lord in their be- 
half. 

DEPARTURE FROM NEW GNADENHUTTEN. 

The 20th of April they met for the last time 

in the chapel to offer up prayer and praise to 

God for all his favors and mercies received at 

that place. Embarking with their effects in 

twenty-two canoes, they proceeded to Detroit, 

where they were kindly entertained for several 

days — all the inhabitants having a high opinion 

of the fair-dealing and upright conduct of the 

Indian brethren. For although they had run 

largely in debt during the season of famine, 
10 



146 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

yet by their industry and economy they were 
enabled to discharge the whole. One poor man 
with a large family of small children fell short, 
and the missionaries were about to assist him 
in the payment, when his wife, wha was walk- 
ing in the field, happened to find a guinea, 
which she supposed was a piece of brass; but, 
when told its value, they took it to the trader, 
paid their debt, and had a few shillings left. 

THE TRAVELERS LEAVE DETROIT. 

On the 28th of April they embarked on 
board two trading vessels, owned by the North- 
West Company, called the Beaver and Makina. 
Owing to contrary winds they were a long time 
on the voyage, being driven back once or twice 
when within sight of their destination. For 
two or three weeks they lay on the shore, 
encamped on an island; and when out in the 
open lake among the waves, the Indians were 
made so sick by the rolling of the vessels that 
they could not stand. 



TROUBLES OF THE JOURNEY. 147 
TROUBLES OF THE JOURNEY. 

Tlie 28th of May, four weeks from the time 
of their departure — the voyage being often 
performed in forty-eight hours — a vessel came 
from Detroit to inquire after the cause of the 
long absence of the schooners, and to recall 
the Beaver. The Makina then agreed to carry 
their baggage, and let the congregation get on 
by land from Sandusky Bay. • 

After a long and very wearisome journey by 
the shores of the lake — some in light bark- 
canoes, hastily built — they reached the mouth 
of the Cuyahoga the 8th of June. Here they 
built more canoes, and continued their voyage 
up that river till the 18th of that month, when 
they reached an old deserted town of the Ot- 
tawas, about one hundred and forty miles dis- 
tant from Fort Pitt. This was the first spot 
that they had found suitable for a settlement, 
being a continuous forest from the mouth of 
the river up to this place. 



148 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 



SETTLEMENT OF PILGERRAH. 

They first encamped on the east side of the 
river, where was an elevated plain, built huts, 
and cleared some ground for planting ; and, 
although so late in the season, concluded to 
put in some Indian corn and spend the Summer. 
This place they called Pilgerrah, or ^'Pilgrim's 
Rest." Here they again regulated their daily 
worships reestablished the statutes of the con- 
gregation, and God blessed their labors. Au- 
gust 13th they partook of the Lord's Supper, 
which to them was the most important and 
blessed of all festivals. 

REMARKS. 

Never since the days of the wanderings of 
the children of Israel in the wilderness has 
there been a people whose situation, in many 
respects, was so nearly assimilated to that of 
the wanderers under the charge of Moses and 
Aaron. Beset with enemies on their right hand 



PROCEEDINGS AT PILGERRAII. 149 

and on their left, persecuted by their own rela- 
tives, suffering by famine and privations of 
every kind, they yet remained firm in the 
cause they had espoused, and never rebelled, 
like that favored people, against the laws of 
their Master. Whenever they had a chance 
for rest, like the Israelites at their stations, 
there they set up the tabernacle, and worsliiped 
God in simplicity and in truth. Their Canaan 
Avas the pleasant country on the Tuscarawas, 
from which they had been expelled, and to 
which they looked forward as their place of 
rest from their tiresome journeys; where they 
had enjoyed much spiritual blessedness, and 
hoped to lay their weary bodies when they 
finally departed for that heavenly Canaan, the 
great end of all their toils, and the resting- 
place from all earthly sorrows. 

PROCEEDINGS AT PILGERRAH. 

Being near the great carrying-place or route 
from the heads of the Muskino;um River to 



150 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

the lakes, tliey were enabled to procure from 
traders many necessary articles. Congress also 
about this time ordered a quantity of corn and 
blankets to be given them from Fort M'Intosh. 
In hunting they were very successful, especially 
in killing deer, bears, and moose-deer. Their 
Moravian brethren at Bethlehem also sent them 
many articles of clothing, etc., by way of Fort 
Pitt, which reached them in August, to their 
great relief and comfort. 

DEPARTURE OF MR. HECKEWELDER. 

In October, 1786, brother Heckewelder took 
an aiFecting leave of the congregation he had 
served so many years, and returned with his 
family to Bethlehem, attended by the best 
wishes and prayers of the people, by whom 
he was greatly loved. 

SICKNESS OF THE MISSIONARIES. 

Brother Zeisberger and wife, with brother 
Edwards, were now left alone in charge of the 



TRANSACTIONS OF 1787. 151 

mission. They had just recovered from a severe 
ilhiess, which is the first time any notice is 
taken of sickness among the missionaries for 
sixteen years — proving the country to have 
been remarkably healthy — although exposed to 
great fatigues and privations. This disease was 
doubtless taken during their voyage and jour- 
ney on the shores of Lake Erie, which have 
always been noted for their malarious atmos- 
phere from its first "discovery to this day, espe- 
cially in the Summer and Autumn. 

TRANSACTIONS OF 1787. 

In the year 1787 the mission received some 
notice from Congress, and an ofi'er of five 
hunch'cd bushels of corn as soon as they re- 
turned to their old towns on the Tuscarawas. 
But fresli disturbances breaking out among the 
several tribes, they were prevented from going 
there at present. Lieutenant-Colonel Harmar 
sent them word from the mouth of the Mus- 
kingum that they might now receive their five 



152 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

hundred bushels of corn and one hundred blank- 
ets at Fort M'Intosh if they would go there for 
them. General Butler also wrote to brother 
Zeisberger that they had better remain at Pil- 
gerrah for the present. The Delaware Indians 
at this time insisted on their removing to Pett- 
quotting, on what is now called the Huron 
River, in the present State of Ohio. The con- 
gregation were anxious to return to the Tus- 
carawas, but the United States advised them to 
remain where they were; while the savages, 
on the contrary, would not suffer them to do 
so, but said they should go to some other place. 
Accustomed to venture their lives in the service 
of the Lord, the missionaries were unconcerned 
as to their own safety; and if that alone had 
been the point in question, they would not 
have hesitated a moment to return to the Tus- 
carawas; but they durst not bring the con- 
gregation under their care into so dangerous a 
situation. They therefore proposed to the In- 
dians to give up all thought of returning for 



REMOVxVL FROM PILGERRAII. 153 

the present; but at the same time leave the 
Cuyahoga, and seek some spot between that 
river and the Huron, where they might find a 
peaceable and quiet retreat. This was agreed 
to by all, and some Indian brethren set out the 
beginning of April, 1787, to seek a place for a 
new settlement, and found one much to their 
mind. In the mean while the Indian congrega- 
tion of Pilgerrah celebrated Lent and Easter 
in a blessed manner. The public reading of 
the Passion of our Lord was attended with a 
remarkable impression on the hearts of all 
present. The congregation could not suffi- 
ciently express tkeir desire to hear more of it, 
and it. appeared as if they now heard this great 
and glorious Word for the first time. 

REMOVAL FROM PILGERRAH. 

On the 19th of April the Christian Indians 
closed their residence here, by ofiering up 
solemn prayer and praise in their chapels, 
which they had used but a short time, and 



154 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

thanked the Lord for the blessings they had 
received at this place. They then departed in 
two bands ; one by water, with brother Ed- 
wards, and one by land, led by brother Zeis- 
berger. Those by w^ater had to pass over a 
considerable part of Lake Erie. 

GREAT STORM. 

Before they left the Cuyahoga a dreadful 
storm arose, the wind blowing from the lake. 
The waves beat with such violence against the 
rocks that the earth seemed to tremble with 
the shock. The pilgrims thanked God that 
they were yet in the mouth of the river and 
not upon the lake. 

FIXE FISH. 

Being in want of provisions, they passed the 
time in fishing, and one night pierced above 
three hundred large fish with their spears by 
torch-light. They were of a fine flavor, and 
resembled pikes in form, weighing from three 



MORE TRIALS AND DISAPPOINTMENTS. 155 

to four pounds each. A part of tlicse they 
roasted and ate, and dried the rest over brush- 
wood fires for food on the voyage. 

On the 24th of the month the party by land 
reached the place of destination, and the party 
by water the day following. It appeared like 
a fruitful orchard— numbers of wild apple and 
plum trees growing here and there. They had 
never settled on so fertile a spot. The camp 
was formed about a league from the lake, which 
in these parts abounded with fish. Wild pota- 
toes, an article of food much esteemed by the 
Indians, grew here plentifully. The brethren 
rejoiced at the thought of establishing a settle- 
ment in so pleasant a country, especially as it 
was not frequented by those savages who had 
heretofore proved such troublesome neighbors. 

MORE TRIALS AND DISAPPOINTMENTS. 
Their joy was of short duration. On the 
27th of the month a Delaware captain arrived 
in the camp, and informed them they should 



156 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

not remain in this place, but live with them at 
Sandusky; adding that it was a matter posi- 
tively determined, and they need not deliberate 
upon it. He added, as usual, the most solemn 
declarations of protection and safety, and also 
said that their habitation would not be near 
any heathen town, but at least ten miles from 
the nearest. To this command the congrega- 
tion reluctantly consented, after representing 
to the captain the malice, treachery, and deceit 
of the Delaware chiefs, which they had expe- 
rienced for six or seven years. 

REMOVAL TO PETTQUOTTING. 

In the beginning of May they were joined 
by Michael Jung and John Weygand from 
Bethlehem, and soon after left a country so 
pleasing in every respect with much sorrow. 
Their course lay along the shores of the lake, 
partly by water and part by land, to Pettquot- 
ting, where they encamped about a mile from 
the lake. Here they found the fallacy of the 



CONVERSION OF A NOTED^ SAVAGE. 157 

statement of the Delaware chiefs, for their resi- 
dence was not above two miles from the towns 
of the savages. They finally, with the consent 
of the chiefs, fixed on a spot near the mouth 
of the river, and went there in their canoes the 
11th of May, and before night a small village 
of bark huts was erected. They made their 
plantations on the yfcst bank of the river, but 
erected their dwelhng-houses on the east side, 
Avhich was higher land. This place they called 
"New Salem." Here they celebrated Ascen- 
sion Day and Whitsuntide, meeting in the open 
air, and on the Gth of June finished and con- 
secrated their new chapel, which was larger and 
better built than the one at Pilgerrah. June 
9th the whole congregation attended a love- 
feast, for wliich flour had been sent from Beth- 
lehem. 

CONVERSION OF A NOTED SAVAGE. 

Among the savages who in 1787 became 
concerned for the salvation of their souls was 



158 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

a noted profligate, who in 1781 threatened the 
lives of the missionaries, and had often lain in 
ambush to kill them, but without success. He 
was traveling and came without design to Pil- 
gerrah, where he heard the Gospel with great 
attention, and ardently expressed his desire to 
be delivered from the service of sin. He would 
not leave the congregation; but, giving up his 
intended journey, staid -with the believing In- 
dians, and, turning with his whole heart to the 
Lord, was baptized at New Salem some months 
after. 

MISSION HISTORY SINCE 1787. 

The history of Loskiel closes at the middle 
of the year 1787, at which time their prospects 
of usefulness were very flattering. In a few 
years after this the war commenced generally 
among the Indian^ tribes against the United 
Stfates, and was not closed till the year 1795. 
Some years after this the Moravian Indians 
and missionaries returned to their towns on the 



MISSION HISTORY SINCE 1787. 159 

Tuscarawas, -where Congress had ah-eady sur- 
veyed for them three tracts of four thousand 
acres each ; namely, one at Schoenhrunn, one 
at Gnadenhutten, and one at Salem. These 
tracts, I believe, still belong to the Moravian 
Missionary Society, and are leased for a term 
of years, the rents of which go into tlie funds 
of the Society for the support of the Gospel 
among the Indians of North America. Mr. 
Heckewelder rejoined the mission after their 
return, and I find was living at Salem and 
Gnadenhutten, as late as the year 1805, from 
a meteorological record kept at that place, and 
published in Barton's Medical Journal. Soon 
after which, from the rapid increase of white 
settlers all around them on the United States 
military lands, and the traders urging upon 
and supplying them with whisky, their con- 
dition became very distressing and troublesome. 
Finding that little permanent good could be 
expected for the poor Indians wliile living 
among the unchristian whites, they finally 



160 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

removed to the frontiers, and settled on the 
River Raisin. 

David Zeisberger died at Schoenbrunn, No- 
vember 7, 1808, aged eightj-seven years, seven 
months, and six days. He was born in Moravia, 
April 11, 1721. ' 



iGi 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CONTINUATION OF BORDER HISTORY. 
STORY OF "silver HEELS." 

For many years after the first settlement of 
Oliio, the article of marine salt was one of 
primary importance in the catalogue of im- 
portations, as being absolutely necessary in the 
domestic economy of civihzed man. The sav- 
age never having been accustomed to its use, 
can Hve and enjoy very good health without 
it — never laying by any great stores of meat, 
but letting each day provide for itself. If he 
needed a supply for a journey or the short 
interval of Summer, when hunting was poor, 
it was easily preserved by the process of "jerk- 
ing," or drying over a slow fire, a mode often 
resorted to by the early borderers themselves. 

Not so with the white man; salt was to him 
11 



162 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

an article of absolute necessity, and he was 
obliged to transport it across the Alleghany 
ranges of mountains, on packhorses, for many 
years after the first settlement of the country, 
at an expense of six or eight dollars a bushel, 
even as late as the year 1800. The immense 
fountains of brine that now are known to exist 
deep in the rocky beds below, and furnish an 
endless source of wealth to the country, were 
then not dreamed of; and it was supposed the 
West would always be dependent on the At- 
lantic coast for salt, and deeply deplored as a 
serious drawback on the value of this beautiful 
region. Although many springs of saline water 
were known to exist in various places, yet they 
were of so poor and weak a quality as to re- 
quire from four to six hundred gallons of the 
water to make a bushel of salt ; and when made 
contained so much foreign matter as to be a 
very inferior article. But as it could be used 
in place of foreign salt, and saved the border- 
ers money, at that day not very plenty, it was 



1G3 



occasionally resorted to by the first settlers; 
and gangs of six or eight men assembled with 
their domestic kettles, and packliorses ^vith 
provisions, camped out in the woods for a week 
at a time. These springs were generally dis- 
covered by the hunters, and were often at re- 
mote points from the settlements. One of the 
most noted in this part of Ohio was on Salt 
Creek, near the present village of Chandlers- 
ville,4n Muskingum county. 

About the year 1798, shortly after the close 
of the Indian war, a party of men from the 
settlement on Olive-Green Creek, a large tribu- 
tary stream of the Muskingum, thirty miles 
from the saline, had assembled at this spot for 
the purpose of manufacturing a little salt for 
their own use. While occupied at this business, 
and cracking their rude jokes as the water 
slowly evaporated from the boiling kettles, a 
noted old Indian warrior, well known to the 
borderers in early days by the name of "Silver 
Heels," who was hunting near the spring, culled 



164 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

at their camp. During peace the intercourse 
of the Indians with the whites was free and 
unrestrained; nor was it uncommon for them 
to hunt in company with perfect confidence and 
good fellowship. At this period the old warrior 
lived on the Muskingum River, a few miles 
west of the saline, at a spot since well known 
to all boatmen by the name of " Silver Heels 
Ripple." As it was now peace he felt no fear, 
and having drank very freely of the whisky 
offered him by the whites, and which in those 
days formed one of the comforts, if not one of 
the necessaries of life, he began to boast of his 
exploits, saying he had taken the scalps of six- 
teen white men during the course of his battles. 
Among others he said he had taken one at the 
mouth of Ohve-Green Creek, near the garrison 
at that place, during the late war. It was that 
of an old man, and had two crowns, or spiral 
turns of the hair, on the top of the head. Of 
this he made two scalps, by carefully dividing 
it, and sold them to the British commander at 



STORY OF "SILVER UEELS." 1G5 

Detroit for fifty dollars each. He further re- 
lated that the old man was gathering the fruit 
of the may-apple, and had the bosom of his 
hunting shirt full at the time. His gun, which 
he had set against a tree, while picking the fruit, 
he described as a musket, with iron bands or 
rings around it; but fearing pursuit, and it 
being useless to him, he had hidden it in a 
hollow log a few rods higher up the bank of 
the creek. The fact of the old man's death 
•was familiar to all present, as the most of them 
were his companions in the garrison at the^ 
time, and were well acquainted with the cir- 
cumstances. It seems he was out near the 
garrison, just at evening, hunting his cow, con- 
trary to the advice and remonstrances of the 
other inmates, who were aware of Indians 
being in the vicinity, and stated the danger 
of thus exposing himself. But being a head- 
strong as well as a brave man, he disregarded 
their fears. He had been absent but a short 
time when the sharp crack of a rifle was heard. 



166 EARLY HISTOHY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

It was known at once for that of an Indian, 
as the gun of the old man was a musket, and 
its report easily distinguished from that of a 
rifle, especially by woodsmen. The garrison 
contained but three or four men, but several 
women and children. And as it was nearly 
dark, and the force of the Indians unknown, 
no search was made for him till the following 
morning, when he was found dead and scalped, 
with his bosom filled with may-apples, which 
he was busily engaged in gathexing for his 
children, at the time, as stated by Silver Heels. 
It so chanced that a son of the old man, now 
a robust forester, and whose name was Sher- 
man, was present listening to the Indian's nar- 
ration. To satisfy himself as to the truth of 
the story, and of his being the actual murderer 
of his father, he returned directly home, and 
making diligent search on the spot pointed out 
as the place where the gun was concealed, he 
found under some rotten wood where the tree 
had lain, the barrel, lock, and rings of his 



107 



father's gun, then lying there about eight 
years, thus confirming the truth of the Indian's 
statement. A few days after this, the dead 
body of the okl warrior was found in a by- 
path in the woods, pierced by a rifle bullet. 
Thus ended the days of " Silver Heels ;" but 
his name will be remembered as long as the 
ripple shall remain in the bed of the Mus- 
kingum. 

"Logan's spring." 

The following anecdote of Logan, the cele- 
brated Mingo chief, is so characteristic of his 
magnanimity and genuine love of the whites, 
that it is well worth preserving. When not 
goaded to madness by the cruelties of the 
Americans, and* under that all-absorbing pas- 
sion, revenge, he was one of the most mild 
and kind-hearted of men. That particular in- 
jury being canceled, benevolence and kindly 
feelings, often predominant even in the savage 
heart, returned in full force, and all former 



168 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

injuries were forgotten. Could a disciple of 
Spurzheim get possession of this savage hero's 
skull, the organ of benevolenoe, as well as that 
of combativeness, would be found largely de- 
veloped. In Ligonier Valley, Mifflin county, 
Pennsylvania, on the Kishaquoquillas Creek, a 
tributary of the Juniata, about the year 1767, 
lived Mr. Samuel Maclay, a noted hunter and 
surveyor of wild lands. He was a man of 
uncommon activity and courage, and stood high 
in the estimation of the early settlers of that 
remote part of the State. After the war of the 
Revolution, he was for several years Speaker 
of the Senate of Pennsylvania. Soon after the 
capture of Fort Pitt, and before peace was 
finally concluded with the Indian tribes en- 
gaged on the side of the French, Mr. Maclay 
was out on a surveying excursion in Ligonier 
Yalley. One evening after a fatiguing day's 
march, examining the country, and fixing the 
boundaries of lots, he encamped in a fine open 
wood, near a large spring which rushed pure 



"Logan's spring." 169 

and limpid from the earth, in a hollow "way 
between two low hills. After eating his sup- 
per of broiled venison, and drinking heartily 
from the spring, he stretched himself on a fresh 
bed of leaves, with his feet to the fire, and 
slept very quietly. Early in the morning he 
was suddenly awakened from his refreshing 
slumbers, by the low growl of his fiiithful dog, 
who lay crouched by his side. As he opened 
his eyes in the direction of the first rays of 
the mornin<]j lisht, the fio;ure of a laro;e Indian 
was seen in bold relief against the clear sky, 
only a few rods from him, on the top of the 
low hill opposite. He was in the act of cock- 
ing his gun, with the barrel resting on his left 
arm, and at the same time looking intently on 
Mr. Maclay. Surprised, but not dismayed, he 
seized the rifle which lay by his side and sprang 
upon his feet. The Indian still stood in the 
same posture, without any attempt to tree, or 
further motion of firing. They both remained 
in the same attitude, a few moments, closely 



170 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

eyeing eacli other. At length the Indian slowly 
opened the pan of his rifle and threw out the 
powder — Maclay did the same — and laying 
down his gun, approached the Indian with out- 
stretched hand in token of peace. The warrior 
also made the same movement, and all enmity 
disappeared immediately. This Indian was the 
celebrated Logan, afterward so cruelly treated 
by white men. The spring near which this in- 
cident occurred is still called "Logan's Spring." 
They remained for many years after, and till 
the encroachments of civilization drove the In- 
dians far west, warm and devoted friends. The 
descendants of Mr. Maclay, from one of whom 
I received the anecdote, still venerate the name 
of Logan. 

FIRST SETTLEMENT AT MARIETTA. 

In the Spring of the year 1836 I was in 
Marietta on the 7th of April, a day hallowed 
as the one on which a little band of adventur- 
ers, the advance guard of the present great 



FIRST SETTLEMENT AT MARIETTA. 171 

State of Ohio, and consisting of only forty- 
seven persons, landed at the mouth of the 
Muskingum. This little band was led by Gen- 
eral Rufus Putnam, one of the directors of 
"the Ohio Company," and subsequently Sur- 
veyor-General to the United States. He was 
the intimate and h^ighly-esteemed friend of the 
great Washington. Under his direction a strong 
stockaded garrison was built on the brow of 
the elevated plain, about half a mile above the 
mouth of the Muskingum, and called " Campus 
Martins." AYithin the walls of this citadel, 
two or three hundred of men, women, and chil- 
dren lived during the Indian war which broke 
out in 1790. This day was for many years 
after scrupulously celebrated by all the inhabit- 
ants, with games at foot-racing, wrestling, and 
cricket ball by day, and a hearty round of 
dancing in the evening, at which the vigorous 
and active limbs of the young females found a 
fascinating and healthy amusement. The Gov- 
ernor of the North-West Territory, of which 



172 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

^ tliis was for a short time the capital, and the 
commander of the troops stationed in Fort Har- 
mar, honored and encouraged them by their 
presence. In imitation of the ancient Greeks, 
these athletic amusements were greatly encour- 
aged at that day, for the purpose of inuring the 
limbs of the youth" to violent exercises, that 
they might be the better enabled to contend 
with the supple and active frames of the sav- 
ages, if ever called into personal contact, as 
they were daily liable to be. 

For four years the inhabitants of Marietta 
and Belpre lived within the walls of their 
garrisons, in a condition very similar to those 
of a besieged city; and, although not closely 
invested by an Indian army, no one could leave 
' the walls of the fort without hazard from the 
rifle or tomahawk of an Indian. They were 
continually lurking around and watching for 
the unwary white man, several of whom fell 
victims to their temerity in venturing too far 
from the defenses. The garrisons were so 



FIRST SETTLEMENT AT MARIETTA. 173 

strongly built, and so carefully defended by 
brave and experienced men, many of Avliom 
had served through the war of the Revolution, 
that the Indians never made a formal attack. 
By constant familiarity with danger, we lose 
much of our fear for its consequences. The 
men became more careless in exposing them- 
selves at work in their fields, and were sometimes 
shot at; although one was generally placed as 
a sentry on the top of a high stump in the 
center of the field. Even the young women 
caught the same spirit of fearlessness, and, tired 
with the monotony of a garrison life, were 
pleased with almost any change; so much so 
tliat from their own lips I have had narrated 
to me the high spirits and delight which they 
felt in hearing the drums beat, and the alarm 
gun fired, as the signal that the Indians were 
in the vicinity, and there was put in motion 
all the hurry and bustle of an actual attack. 
Seeing no immediate danger, nor any signs of 
fear in tliose around them, tliey happily felt 



174 EARLY HISTORY OP THE NORTH-WEST. 

none themselves; and enjoyed the sth-ring scene 
with far more zest than the females of modern 
days enjoy a military parade. 

This day, so long honored and kept in remem- 
brance by our predecessors, had for a number 
of years been neglected; but thanks to the 
impulse given at Cincinnati in 1835, by a few 
patriotic and high-minded men, it has again 
revived. The assembly on this occasion at 
Marietta was numerous, and the large Congre- 
gational church filled to overflowing to witness 
the ceremonies. Two hundred of this number 
were made up from the youth of the college 
and the young ladies' academy, which have 
sprung up in this place, and the inmates of 
which were all born many years since the yell 
of the savage was last heard on the shores of 
the Muskingum. Among the actors of the day, 
I noticed several of the pioneers and hardy 
borderers of 1788, whose venerable, but yet 
robust frames still remained as living speci- 
mens of "the days which tried men's souls," 



FIRST SETTLEMENT AT MARIETTA. 175 

as well as their courage. Some of these men 
had been living on the Ohio River for several 
years before that time, especially Peter Ander- 
son and John Burroughs, who acted as rangers, 
or "spies" for the Ohio Company during the 
war from 1790 to 1795. 

One of the most dangerous and fatiguing em- 
ployments ever consigned to man, was that of 
traversing the wilderness, singly or in pairs, 
in search of North American Indians. The 
life of the ranger was in continual jeopardy 
from the ambush of the savage; and every tree 
presented a point from behind which his enemy 
could unseen hm-1 upon him wounds and death. 
And yet there were many men who loved the 
occupation merely because it was dangerous. 
A service devoid of hazard was in their estima- 
tion without interest, and only fit for women 
and cowards. Of these men a very few only 
are left. The robust and still erect frame of 
Peter Anderson, now seventy-eight years old, 
clad in a calico Indian hunting shirt, the com- 



176 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

mon dress of the rangers, was there; a noble 
specimen of what man has been, and perhaps 
may be again when the same causes shall call 
them into existence. 

To the courage and activity of ^'the spies," 
a frontier name for rangers, the early colonists 
at Marietta, Belpre, and Belleville, were greatly 
indebted for their safety. Their daily excur- 
sions to the distance of twenty and thirty miles 
thi'ough the wilderness, gave the inhabitants 
notice of the approach of the Indians in time 
to prepare for an attack. During this service 
several Indians were killed, and a few of the 
rangers lost their lives. Of those who first 
landed here on the 7th of April, although two 
or thi^ee hundi^ed came TJh in the course of the 
year, four individuals only were present. Their 
gray locks and attenuated frames bore solemn 
proofs of the work of time. "When we look at 
the vast improvements, and the multitudes that 
now people the places which were then covered 
by dense forests, we wonder that any of those 



FIRST SETTLEMENT AT MARIETTA. 177 

^vho flourished in that day should still be living 
at this. 

Arius Nye, Esq., whose father is yet living, 
and was among the early adventurers, doHvercd 
a very animated and eloquent address, detailing 
the early history of the Ohio Company and 
their progress at this place, disclosing many 
facts not generally known, and which will form 
an interesting chapter in the history of Mari- 
etta, that he is preparing for publication. The 
ceremonies of the day being finished, the com- 
pany partook of a substantial dinner in the 
large hall of I. Lewis; the walls of which were 
decorated with two fine oil paintings, of old 
Fort Harmar, and Campus Martins. Among 
the numerous sentiments given was one sent 
in by Francis Devol, who was prevented by 
sickness from being present. Ilis father. Cap- 
tain Jonathan Devol, was one of the forty-seven 
who first landed here on the 7th of April, and 
his mother, with several other heroic women, 

came on with their fimihes in the Autumn 
12 



/ 

178 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

following, and were here during all the Indian 
war. His parents have been dead several years, 
as are nearly all the matrons of that early day. 
The sentiment given was a brief one, but em- 
braced thoughts and materials for volumes. It 
was simply, ^^our mothers f^ and I am happy to 
say was received with that deep feeling which 
the subject merited. Dr. Hildreth, when called 
upon, gave ^'the memory of Isaac Williams," 
accompanied with the following brief sketch of 
the biography of this noble old pioneer, and 
some historical incidents illustrating the times 
in which he hved. 



ISAAC WILLIAMS. 179 



CHAPTER IX. 

PIONEER BIOGRAPHY. 
ISAAC "WILLIAMS. 

At this interesting festival, hallowed as the 
day on which our forefathers first landed on 
these shores, and endeared to their descend- 
ants by many touching recollections, we can 
not do better in honoring it than by calling up 
the names and recounting some of the scenes 
of that far-distant period. 

On the canvas which decorates that wall I 
see shadowed forth by the hand of the artist 
the humble dwelling and the early "clearing" 
of one who, although not forming a portion of 
the enterprising company that landed at the 
mouth of the Muskingum, and whose trials and 
whose firmness have been so ably delineated by 
the eloquent address of the orator of the day, 



180 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

was yet here in the wilderness before them, 
ready to endure privations and to brave dan- 
ger. That little spot, Mr. President, was the 
" clearing " * of Isaac Williams, made nearly 
two years before the landing of the company, 
and only a few months after the building of 
Fort Harmar, in the Autumn of 1786. This 
painting, copied from a drawing made by the 
Hon. Joseph Gillman in the year 1790, gives 
an accurate view of old Fort Harmar and the 
surrounding scenery as it appeared at that 
early day. 

Mr. Williams took possession of his forest 
domain the 26th of March, 1787. It is the 
memory of this man which I rise to pledge, 
and some few of whose good deeds and daring 
adventures I desire to commemorate. 

So far as I have been able to ascertain, Isaac 
Williams was born in the principality of Wales, 
not far from the year 1736. He immigrated to 

* The " clearing " was opposite the mouth of Muskingum 
River, in Virginia, and formed a part of the painting. 



ISAAC WILLIAMS. 181 

America when quite young, as he was known 
to some of the family of Mr. Joseph Tomlin- 
son, many years before they settled in Western 
Virginia, by the name of ^'the Welsh boy." 
lie lost his father soon after, when his mother 
married a Mr. Buckley, and moved west of the 
mountains. 

Mr. Williams was among the earliest adven- 
turers from the Shenandoah River to the waters 
of the Monongahela; and becoming acquainted 
with Rebecca, the daughter of Mr. Joseph Tom- 
linson, was married to her about the year 1767. 
In this noble-minded woman he found a spii'it 
congenial to his own — a stranger to fear, and 
yet full of kind and benevolent feelings. For 
several years she had been the housekeeper 
of her two brothers, surrounded by dangers on 
the frontier settlements amid the Indians, and 
often, when they were absent on war and hunt- 
ing parties, for many days entirely alone. By 
this marriage they had only one child, a daugh- 
ter who was born January 29, 1788, two months 



182 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

before the arrival of the Ohio Company. This 
was probably the first white child born on the 
banks of the Ohio, between Grave Creek and 
the mouth of Big Sandy River, and may em- 
phatically be called the child of his old age, as 
he was then fifty-two years old, and had been 
married about twenty years. Drusilla, the only 
hope of her aged parents, married Mr. John 
Henderson, and died young, leaving no issue to 
bear up the family name. 

In person Mr. Wilhams was of the medium 
size, with an upright frame, and robust, mus- 
cular limbs ; his features firm and strongly 
marked, with a taciturn and quiet manner. In 
his habits he was remarkably abstemious and 
temperate. Instead of the more common and 
fashionable beverage of tea and cofiee, he used 
altogether milk or water at his meals. To such 
simple palates stimulating diinks have no en- 
ticements; so that temperance with them is a 
native, inborn virtue. These primitive habits 
account for his almost uniform good health and 



STORY OF JOHN WETZEL. 183 

great age. From early youtj;^ he was much 
attached to hunting, and to chstant and solitary 
rambles in the deep forests of the West — pur- 
suing the chase of the buffalo and the bear, 
and trapping the sagacious beaver. In these 
excursions, and in making locations of "rights," 
as the early land entries of Virginia were then 
called, and wliich extended to both banks of the 
Ohio, many of the most active years of his life 
were passed. 

In the Fall of the year 1780 or '81— my 
informant, Mrs. Elizabeth Tomlinson, now a 
very aged woman, but who then lived in that 
vicinity, is not certain which — Mr. Williams 
was enga^jed in the following adventure at the 
mouth of Grave Creek. 

STORY OF JOHN WETZEL. 

John Wetzel, a younger brother of Lewis, 
the celebrated ranger and Indian hunter, then 
about sixteen years old, with a neighboring 
boy of about the same age, were in search of 



184 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST.. 

horses that had strayed away in the woods on 
Wheeling Creek, where the parents of John 
then lived. One of the stray animals was a 
mare with a young foal, belonging to John's 
sister, which she promised to give to John as 
a reward for finding the mare. Yv^hile on this 
service they were captured by a party of three 
Indians, who, having accidentally found the 
horses, caught them and placed them in a 
thicket, expecting that their bells would attract 
the notice of their owners, and they should 
then easily capture them, as well as the horses, 
or take their scalps. The horse was always a 
favorite object with the savage, as not only 
facilitating his own escape from pursuit, but 
also assisting him in carrying off the plunder. 

The boys, hearing the well-known tinkle of 
the bells, approached the spot where the In- 
dians lay concealed, congratulating themselves 
on their good luck in so readily finding the 
strays, and were immediately seized by the 
Inchans. John, in attempting to escape, was 



STORY OF JOHN WETZEL. 185 

shot tliroiio-li tlic arm. On their march to the 

o 

Ohio his companion made so much lamentation 
and moaning on account of his captivity, that 
the Indians dispatched him with their toma- 
hawks; while John, who had once before been 
taken prisoner and escaped, made light of it, 
vji(\ went along cheerfully with his wounded 
arm. The party struck the Ohio River early 
the following morning at a point near the 
mouth of Grave Creek, and just below the 
clearing of Mr. Tomlinson. 

Here they found some fat hogs, and killing 
two put them into a canoe they had stolen — 
two Indians taking possession of the canoe 
with their prisoner, while the other Indian 
was occupied in swimming the horses across 
the river. While amusing themselves at the 
squealing of some young pigs, and talking and 
laughing very loud, they were overheard by 
Isaac Williams and Hamilton Kerr, who had 
passed the night at Mr. Tomlinson's, and were 
then on the look-out for signs of Imlians. 



186 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

Kerr first hearing the noise ran ahead, and 
coming nearly opposite the canoe at once dis- 
covered the cause, and without a moment's 
delay discharged his rifle at the Indian who 
was steering it with such fatal effect that he 
fell dead into the river. Mr. Williams came 
up immediately after and shot the other In- 
dian, who fell into the bottom of the canoe. 

By this time Kerr had again loaded his rifle, 
and was drawing up to shoot John, who he 
supposed was also an Indian, when he cried 
out, '' Do n't shoot ; I am a prisoner." He 
was then told to paddle the canoe to shore, 
to which he answered, "My right arm is shot 
through the elbow, and is useless." The canoe, 
however, soon drifted into shoal water, when 
John jumped out and waded to the shore. The 
boat floated on undisturbed, and was finally 
taken up near the Falls of the Ohio, with the 
two dead hogs still in it. The Indian who fell 
into the water was taken out just below and 
scalped. 



BIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. 187 



BIOGRAPUY CONTINUED. 

This is a single sample of the many similar 
adventures in -which Mr. Williams was for sev- 
eral years engaged. He seldom spoke of his 
own exploits, and when related they generally 
came from the lips of his companions. There 
was only one situation in which he could be 
induced to relax his natural reserve, and freely 
narrate the romantic and hazardous adventures 
which had befallen him in his hunting and war 
excursions in all parts of the "Western wilder- 
ness, and that was when encamped by the 
evening fire in some remote spot, after the 
toils of the day were closed, and the supper 
of venison and bear's meat finished. Here, 
while reclining on a bed of fresh-fallen leaves 
beneath the lofty branches of the forest, his 
body and mind felt a freedom that the "hut" 
and the ^' clearing " could not give ; but sur- 
rounded by the works of God, with no listener 
save the stars and his companion, the spirit of 



188 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

narration came upon him, and for hours he 
would rehearse the most thrilling and heart- 
moving details of his youthful and early adven- 
tures by forest, flood, and field. In this manner 
the late Mr. Alexander Henderson, whose worth 
and whose kind and gentlemanly manners were 
well known to most of us, informed me he had 
I)assed with Mr. Williams some of the most 
interesting hours of his life, while hunting on 
the heads of the Little Kanawha. His romantic 
and chivalrous spirit could well appreciate the 
value of such daring deeds. 

With the foresight of a reflecting mind, Mr. 
Williams had taken possession of a large tract 
of land on the left bank of the Ohio, opposite 
the mouth of the Muskingum; had erected 
cabins; made a clearing; and was living on it 
with his family, as I have already said, at the 
time the Ohio Company took possession at 
Marietta. 

Among his many kind and neighborly acts 
to the first settlers and pioneers of Ohio, those 



FAMINE AMONG THE COLONISTS. 180 

of tlie year 1790 display liis benevolence and 
single-heartedness in the most pleasing light. 
From the destructive effects of an untimely 
frost in September of the year 1789, the crops 
of corn were greatly injured, and where late 
planted entirely ruined. 

'FAMINE AMONG THE COLONISTS. 

In the Spring and Summer of 1790 the in- 
habitants, whose time had been chiefly occu- 
pied in erecting dwellings and stockaded garri- 
sons, and of coui'se had cleared but little land, 
began to suffer from the want of food, especially 
wholesome breadstuff. The Indians were be- 
coming troublesome, and rendered it hazardous 
boating pro^dsions from the older settlements 
an the Monongahcla. Many families had no 
other meal than that made from moldy corn, 
and were sometimes destitute even of this, for 
several days in succession. This moldy corn 
was sold at a dollar per bushel, and when 
ground on their liand mills and made into 



190 EAELY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

bread few stomachs were able to digest, or 
even to retain it for a few minutes. My 
esteemed friend, C. Devol, ,Esq., who is now 
seated at this festive board, and who was then 
a small boy, has often narrated with much 
feeling his gastronomic trials with this moldy 
meal, made into a dish called ^' sap -porridge f^ 
but which, when made with sweet corn-meal 
and the fresh saccharine juice of the maple, 
afforded both a nourishing and a savory dish. 
The family, then living at Belpre, had been 
without bread for two days, when his father 
returned from Marietta with a scanty supply 
of moldy corn. The hand mill of "Farmers' 
Castle," the name of the garrison, was imme- 
diately put in operation, and the meal cooked 
into "sap-porridge," as it was then the sea- 
son of sugar-making. The famished children 
eagerly swallowed the unsavory mess, which 
was almost as immediately rejected — reminding 
us of the deadly pottage of the children of the 
prophet, but lacking the healing power of an 



FAMINE AMONG THE COLONISTS. 101 

Elislia to render it salutary and nutritious. Dis- 
appointed of expected relief, the poor cliikken 
went supperless to bed, to dream of savory 
food and plenteous meals, unrealized by their 
waking hours. 

It was during this period of want that ^Ir. 
"Williams displayed his benevolent feelings for 
the suffering colonists. From the circumstance 
of his being in the country earlier he had more 
ground cleared, and had raised a large crop of 
corn. This he now distributed among the in- 
habitants for three shillings a bushel, when at 
the same time he was offered a dollar by a 
speculator for his whole crop. !Man has ever 
fattened on the distresses of his fellows. "Dod- 
rot him!" said the old hunter; ^'I would not 
let him have a bushel." * He not only parted 
with his corn at this cheap rate, but he also 

* This was a mode of expressioa used by Mr. Williams when 
his feelings were much excited. He had the greatest abhor- 
rence of profanity ; and I Vecollect distinctly of once hearing 
him reprove with great severity a boatman who was guilty 
of this unmanly vice. 



192 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

prudently proportioned the number of bushels 
according to the number of individuals in a 
family. An empty purse was no bar to the 
needy applicant, but his wants were equally 
supplied with those who had money, and a 
credit given till more favorable times should 
enable him to discharge the debt. 

During this season of privation, I have heard 
some of our present inhabitants, who were then 
childi^en, relate with what anxiety, from day to 
day, they watched the tardy growth of the corn, 
beans, and squashes, and with what rapture 
they partook of the first dish prepared from 
vegetables of their own raising! Disinterested 
benevplence, such as we have been admiring in 
Mr. Williams, is confined to no country, nor to 
any age, but flourishes with the greatest vigor 
in the hut of the forester, and amidst the in- 
habitants of an exposed frontier. Common 
danger creates community of feeling and of 
interest; and I have no doubt that our fore- 
fathers, could they again speak, would say that 



SIMPLE HABITS. 193 

the years passed by them in garrison, sur- 
rounded by danger and privation, were some 
of the most interesting, if not the most happy, 
of their lives. 

SIMPLE HABITS. 

But to return to the object of these remarks. 
Mr. Williams retained a relish for hunting to 
his latest days; and whenever a little unwell, 
forsaking his comfortable home, would take liis 
rifle and dog, retire to the woods, and encamp- 
ing by some clear stream, remain there drink- 
ing the pure water, and eating such food as 
his rifle procured, till his health was restored. 
Medicine he never took, except such simples 
as the forest afforded. The untrod wilderness 
was for him full of charms, and before the close 
of the Revolutionary war he had hunted over 
all parts of the Valley of the Ohio as low 
down as the Mississippi. Respected by all 
for his benevolence and simplicity of manners, 

the days of Mr. Williams passed silently along 
13 



194 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

in the cultivation and improvement of the plant- 
ation his own prowess had rescued from the 
wilderness. During the Indian war from 1790 
to 1795 he remained unmolested in his cabin, 
protected in some measure from attack by the 
Ohio River and the proximity of Fort Harmar. 
Many years before his death he liberated all 
his slaves, and by his will left valuable tokens 
of his love and good feeling for the oppressed 
and despised African. Full of years and of 
good deeds, and strong in the faith of a blessed 
immortality through the atoning blood of his 
Redeemer, he resigned his spirit to Him who 
gave it on the 25th of September, 1820, aged 
eighty -four years; and was buried in a beau- 
tiful grove on his own plantation, surrounded 
by the trees he so dearly loved when living. 

HAMILTON KERR. 

Hamilton Kerr, the man referred to in the 
preceding sketch of Isaac Williams, was an- 
other of those stout-hearted and kon-sided 



HAMILTON KERR. 105 

men who seem to have been providentially 
raised up to meet the exigencies of the time 
in which they lived. *It is doubtless one of 
the laws of nature that all its productions shall 
be fitted to the climate and soil in which they 
are placed. The law holds equally good when 
applied to man. In times of violence, tumult, 
and strife, the mind and body of man are so 
constituted as to be readily accommodated to 
the emergency which requires their service. In 
peaceable and quiet seasons the passions are 
lulled into repose, and we dream not that such 
stern hearts can be found who can look on 
bloodshed and slaughter with composure; yet 
such has ever been the condition of poor human 
nature. It is the animal triumphing over the 
rational ; the fiendish portion of our being over- 
coming the spiritual and the angelic. Without 
the holy and purifying precepts of Christianity, 
subduing and suppressing the animal propens- 
ities, man would ever remain a degraded and 
brutish being; with the aid of this Divine gift 



196 EARLY HISTORY OP THE NORTH-WEST. 

he can be taught to overcome his most violent 
passions, and to love and do good to those who 
have heaped upon him the greatest injuries. 
Even in his savage state, kind and benevolent 
feelings toward an enemy are sometimes seen; 
so that the Creator did not leave man without 
some redeeming quahties, although they have 
been strangely perverted. 

Hamilton Kerr was the intimate friend of 
Isaac Williams ; and, although many years 
younger, there was not only that sympathy 
of feeling which a similar occupation produces, 
but also that mutual regard which generous 
and brave men ever entertain for each other. 
For days and months they had traversed the 
wilderness together, pursuing the chase of the 
bear, the bujQfalo, and the deer, and side by side 
had fought the common enemy of the country. 
He w^as a tall, athletic man, possessed of great 
muscular power, and one of those brave pioneers 
who acted as rangers for the garrisons at Ma- 
rietta and Belpre during the Indian war ; a man 



HAMILTON KERR. 197 

"whose heart never knew fear, and would have 
borne the torture by fire at tlie stake with the 
same uncomplaining fortitude and contempt of 
pain as the savage himself. From a similarity 
of pursuits, and by frequent intercourse in times 
of peace, many of the Western borderers had 
insensibly imbibed a large share of that stoical 
philosophy so peculiar to the savages of North 
America. But fortunately Mr. Kerr was not 
put to the test, although often in danger from 
the rifles of his enemies. Several Indians were 
known to have fallen by his hands in the vicinity 
of the garrisons. 

After the close of the war he settled on a 
farm in Meigs county, Ohio, near the mouth 
of a creek which still bears his name, and is 
well known to all who navigate the Ohio as 
*< Kerr's Run." Although he had no advantages 
of education, yet, like many of the sons of the 
forest, he possessed superior intellectual powers. 
He stood high in the estimation of the public, 
and for many years held the office of a magis- 



198 EARLY HISTORY OF THE XORTH-WEST. 

trate, bestowed upon him bj the free suffrages 
of his neighbors, as a mark of their confidence 
in his integrity and talents. He died a few 
years since, greatly lamented as one of the 
early friends and protectors of the infant West. 



I 



LEGEND OF 



CHAPTER X. 

LEGENDS OF BOEDER HISTORY. 
LEGEND OP "carpenter's BAR." 

Six miles above Marietta, at a broad expan- 
sion in the Ohio River, is the location of 
"Carpenter's Bar," a spot much: dreaded by 
all steamboat pilots in low stages of the water. 
It took its name from a tragical event which 
occurred in the early settlement of the country, 
near the mouth of a small stream, which puts 
into the Ohio opposite the bar. This stream is 
called "Carpenter's Run." The inhabitants of 
Marietta having migrated from a distant part 
of the United States, were not in a condition 
to bring many domestic animals with them, 
and those they did bring were generally stolen 
from them, or shot down in the woods by the 
Indians. This state of destitution for several 



200 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

years after the settlement in 1788, opened a 
favorable market for cattle to the older settle- 
ments on the western branch of the Mononga- 
hela River, in the vicinity of the present town 
of Clarksburg, Virginia. 

In this region, especially on "the Elk," and 
"the West Fork," settlements had been made 
as early as the year 1772; and many large 
farms were opened, and numerous herds of 
cattle grown in the rich hills of that country, 
which has ever been famous for its fine grazing 
lands. It is distant about eighty ruiles in 
nearly a due east direction from the mouth of 
the Muskingum. Several droves had been sent 
in as early as the year 1790. Among others 
engaged in this business was Nicholas Carpen- 
ter, a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, 
who had been one of the first settlers of this 
remote region. He was a man of great energy 
and activity, and took the lead in all business 
transactions; having not only a large farm, 
with eighty or one hundred acres of cleared 



LEGEND OF " CARPENTER'S BAR." 201 

laml, with a fine orchard, but a small store of 
di'y goods. He carried on a smithery, and gun 
making, at which he worked himself; and also 
employed a hatter, shoemaker, and clothier, all 
on his own premises. For so remote a spot, 
and so early a day, Mr. Carpenter may well 
be considered a man of much importance to 
the society among which he dwelt. He was 
not only a business man, but also a pious man — 
commencing and closing the labors of each day 
by prayer and praise to his Maker for the fa- 
vors he received in this world, and the cheerinir 
hope of immortality promised him in the Gospel 
among the blessed in the next. 

At the period of the event which I am about 
to relate, he was the father of eleven children, 
all by one mother. In those days such families 
were not uncommon. Every thing was in its 
prime. The virgin soil brought forth by hund- 
red-fold; and mankind multiplied the more rap- 
idly, not only from their simple food and active 
lives, but also from the continual dangers that 



202 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

surrounded them. As a sample of the fecundity 
of the climate, there were living about twenty- 
eight years ago — soon after the period of my 
settling on the Ohio River, a little below the 
mouth of Fishing Creek in Virginia — two broth- 
ers by 'the name of Wells, whose united progeny 
amounted to forty-seven; one brother having 
twenty-four and the other twenty-three chil- 
dren. The two families used to fill one school- 
house themselves. They, however, had each of 
them a second wdfe; and a number of the 
children are yet living in that vicinity. 

The latter part of September, in the year 
1791, Mr. Carpenter left home for Marietta 
with a large drove of cattle. This place he 
had visited twice before on the same business. 
He had in company with him, to assist in 
driving the cattle through the wilderness by a 
path, on each side of which the trees had been 
marked, five men, and his little son, Nicholas, 
then only ten years of age. He was, however, 
an uncommonly-active boy, and often traversed 



LEGEND OF " CARPENTER'S BAR." 203 

the woods on horseback, to the distance of 
twenty and thirty miles, all alone on the busi- 
ness of his father. As the IncUans were then 
hostile, he was warned of the danger by his 
mother, who was very sorry to part with him, 
but he pleaded so earnestly to go, and playfully 
answered that he could easily escape on his 
little horse if attacked, which was very swift 
of foot, that she finally consented. The names 
of the men who accompanied him were Jesse 
Hughes, George Leggett, John Paul, Burns, 
and Ellis. They had traveled three days with- 
out any signs of danger, and were approaching 
within sight of the Ohio River, and only six 
miles from the mouth of the Muskingum, when 
they encamped for the night on the banks of a 
small run, a short distance from its mouth — 
considering themselves as safe from attack, and 
then' journey in a manner completed. Their 
horses were hojyj^led and turned loose to feed 
in the vicinity of the camp, on the wild pea 
vine and tall plants with which the woods were 



l04 eakly history op the north-west. 

filled at that day ; while the drove of cattle lay 
around and browsed, or ruminated after their 
weary travel, as best suited their several in- 
clinations. 

While they are thus quietly resting we will 
triavel to another part of the forest. It so 
happened that not far from the time of their 
leaving home with the drove, a marauding 
party of six Shawnee Indians, headed as was 
afterward ascertained, by Tecumseh, then about 
twenty years of age, and finally so celebrated 
for bravery and talents, crossed the Ohio Eiver 
a short distance above the mouth of the Little 
Kanawha. They had left Old Chilhcothe, a 
noted Indian town on the Scioto River, with 
the intention of making a foray on the west 
branch of the Monongahela, for the purpose 
of stealing horses and killing the inhabitants. 
Passing by "Neal's Station" on the Kanawha, 
they met with a colored boy of Mr. Neal's, 
about fourteen years old, who was at some 
distance from the house collecting the cows, 



LEGEND OF '* CARl'ENTEll's BAR." 205 

it being just at evening. They took him a 
prisoner and forced liim to go along with them, 
but did no other mischief lest alarm should be 
given and pursuit made, and the main object of 
their excursion be frustrated. The route from 
Kanawha to the west branch was well known 
to the Indians and all the old hunters. And 
although the country was a continued wilder- 
ness, their main war paths were as familiar to 
them as our modern turnpikes are to travelers. 
On this route a part of the old Indian trail, for 
nearly twenty miles, lies on the top of a narrow 
ridge, now known to all this region as "Dry 
Ridge." It is so named from its being desti- 
tute of any water for all this distance, and is 
the dividing line between the streams which 
fall into Hughes River on one side, and those 
which flow into Middle-Island Creek on the 
other. 

I well remember traveling on this ridge thirty 
years ago. It was to visit a patient thirty-two 
miles from Marietta, and we reached our desti- 



206 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

nation a little before midnight. The sick man 
was in the agonies of death, and expired shortly 
after. The house, a small log-cabin, was so 
crowded with visitors, and there was so much 
talking and noise that I could not sleep, and 
concluded to mount my horse and return. It 
was the last of October, and a clear starlight 
night, about two o'clock, and was not the less 
dreary from my being all alone, and the rec- 
ollection of the scene I had just witnessed. 
There was not a house for twenty miles. Ever 
and anon the howl of a wolf, or the shrill yell 
of a panther, only a few rods from the path, 
made both the horse and the rider prick up 
their ears. After a solitary ride of four hours 
I reached a cabin at the foot of the ridge, 
where on inquiry I learned that a great many 
deer had been lately killed along the ridge, 
and that an unusual number of wolves, attracted 
by the smell of the blood, had assembled to 
feast on the oifal. This path was then pointed 
out to me as "the old Indian trail," and was 



LEGEND OF " CARPENTER'S BAR." 207 

doubtless the same along Avhich Tecumseh and 
his party had marched. 

But to return from this episode. Before they 
reached the waters of the Monongahela Frank, 
the black boy, became much tired with his long 
walk, when the Indians, to encourage him, prom- 
ised him a horse to ride on their return. Soon 
after lea\dng the ridge they came upon the trail 
of Mr. Carpenter's di'ove, and thinking them a 
caravan of new settlers on their way to the 
Ohio, they immediately gave up any further 
progress east, and turned with great energy 
and high spirits on the fresh large trad, which 
they saw had been made only the day before. 
So broad was the track made by the drove of 
more than a hundred cattle and six or seven 
horses, that they followed it without difficulty 
all night, and came upon the cattle and the 
camp fire a little before day. 

Previously to' commencing the attack they 
took the precaution of securing the black boy 
with thongs to a stout sapling, a short distance 



208 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

from the camp, telling him if he made any 
noise the tomahawk would be his fate. The 
tramping and noise of the cattle assisted the 
Indians in making their approaches to recon- 
noiter the camp, as their own movements would 
be blended with those of the cattle in the ears 
of the sentries, had there been any. But thi^ 
precaution they had not taken, as they in fact 
considered themselves in no danger. Tecumseh, 
with the caution that ever after distinguished 
him, placed his men behind the trunk of a large 
fallen tree, only a few rods from the camp, 
where they could watch the movements of their 
enemies and not be seen themselves. At the 
first dawn of morning, Carpenter, who was the 
first to rise, awakened his men, saying it was 
time to be moving; and when their ablutions 
were completed, he called them together that 
they might begin the day with the accustomed 
acts of devotion. As the men -eat around the 
fire, he commenced reading and singing a hymn, 
in which the men all joined, from the old " West- 



LEGEND OF " CARPENTER'S BAR." 209 

End" Baptist collection, and was in the act of 
reading the following lines of the third verse: 

" Awake our souls, away our fears, 

Let every trembling thought begone ; 
Awake and run the heavenly race. 
And put a cheerful courage on." 

At this moment the Indians all fired, follow- 
ing the discharge with a most terrific yell, and 
immediately rushed upon their astonished and 
unprepared victims with their tomahawks. The 
fire of the Indians was not very well directed, 
as it killed only one man, Elhs, from Green- 
brier, and wounded John Paul through the 
hand. Ellis immediately fell, exclaiming, "0 
Lord ! I am killed." The rest sprang to their 
feet, and before they could all get their rifles, 
w^hich were standing against a tree, the Indians 
were among them. Hughes, who had been an 
old Indian hunter, in his confusion seized on 
two guns, his own and Mr. Carpenter's, and 
pushed into the woods with an Indian at his 

heels. He discharged one of tliem, hut whether 
14 



210 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

with effect is not known, and threw the other 
down. Not having completed dressing himself 
before the attack, his long leather leggins were 
only fastened to the belt around his waist, but 
were hanging loose below, and getting between 
his legs greatly impeded his flight. Finding 
he should be soon overtaken unless he could 
rid himself of their incumbrance, he stopped, 
and placing his foot on the lower ends tore 
them loose from the belt, leaving his legs naked 
from the hips downward. This operation, al- 
though the work of a moment, nearly cost him 
his life, for his pursuer, then within a few yards, 
threw his tomahawk so accurately as to graze 
his head. Freed from this impediment he soon 
left his foe far behind and escaped. My in- 
formant, a son of Mr. Carpenter, now living 
in Marietta, but then a small boy, says he well 
remembers seeing the bullet holes in Hughes's 
hunting shirt, so narrow was his escape. 

John Paul, with his wounded hand, was saved 
by his superior activity in running. George 



LEGEND OF " CARPENTER'S BAR." 211 

Leggett was pursued for nearly four miles, over- 
taken and killed. Burns, a strong, athletic man, 
and not much of a runner, was slain near the 
camp after a desperate resistance, as the vines 
and weeds were all trampled down for more 
than a rod square around where he lay. When 
found a few days after, his stout jack-knife was 
still clasped in his hand, with which he had 
doubtless inflicted some wounds on his foes. 
Mr. Carpenter, although lame, having had his 
ankle joint shattered by a rifle shot many years 
before, would have done some execution on his 
enemies could he have found his rifle, which 
Hughes in his hurry and confusion had carried 
oif. Although a very brave man, yet without 
arms he could do nothing, and being too lame 
for a long race, he sought safety by conceal- 
ment behind a clump of willows in the bed of 
the run, but was soon discovered. His Httlc 
son was also taken near him. They were hur- 
ried to the spot where black Frank was left, 
and both of tlicm killed; the father by tlie 



212 EARLir HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

plunge of a knife, and the son by the stroke 
of a tomahawk. What led to the slaughter 
after they had surrendered is not known, but 
probably from the Indians' thirst for the blood 
of white men. Negroes when captured by them 
they seldom killed, but treated kindly, either 
from pity at their condition, or the fancy that 
they were, from their color, in some way re- 
motely connected. The body of Mr. Carpen- 
ter was found carefully wrapped up in his own 
new blanket, with a pair of new Indian mocca- 
sins on his feet, and his scalp not removed, 
while all the others had been subjected to this 
operation. The removal of the scalp is con- 
sidered the greatest disgrace that can befall a 
warrior. These marks of respect after his 
death were shown him by an Indian of the 
party, whose gun Mr. Carpenter had repaired 
a few months before, and had refused any com- 
pensation for the service. This fact was told to 
Christopher Carpenter by one of the Indians, 
many years after, at Urbana, in Ohio. 



LEGEND OF " CARPENTER'S BAR." 213 

Tecumseh's party, after collecting llic plunder 
of the camp, retreated in such haste, fearing a 
pursuit from the garrison at Fort Ilarmar, that 
thej left all the horses, which had probably 
scattered in the woods alarmed at the noise of 
the attack. Before starting from this scene of 
blood, they sent out one of their number to 
unloose the black boy Frank, and take him 
along, with them, but to save them this trouble 
he had already unloosed himself. In the midst 
of the confusion of the assault, by great exer- 
tions he broke the thongs which bound him, 
and hid himself m a thick patch of tall weeds 
near by. After all was quiet, and he supposed 
the Indians had departed, he raised his head 
cautiously and looked around, when much to 
his amazement he saw a tall Indian within a 
few paces of him, but who being occupied with 
other thoughts fortunately did not see him, and- 
went off in another direction. Frank returned 
to his master, and died only a few months 
since. The death of Mr. Carpenter and his 



214 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

comrades filled the settlement on Monongahela 
■^ith grief and consternation, for he was greatly 
esteemed, and his loss for many years deeply 
lamented. 



DESCRIPTION OF FORT HARMAR- 215 



CHAPTER XI. 

MISCELLANEOUS SCRAPS. 
DESCRIPTION OF FORT HARMAR. 

Fort Harmar was built in the Autumn of 
the year 178G, by a detachment of United 
States troops under the command of Lieut.- 
Col. Harmar. The form of the fort was pen- 
tagonal, or five-sided, with a bastion of the 
same form at each corner. The walls or cur- 
tains between the bastions were each about one 
hundred and twenty feet in length and twelve 
feet high, constructed of hewed logs. The bar- 
racks for the soldiers were built against the 
curtains, the walls of which formed the out- 
side of the buildings, while ths roofs descended 
within, throwing the rain-water inside the in- 
closure. The rooms in these were large, form- 
ing ample quarters for the troops, and buildings 



216 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

for the provisions and stores. The bastions 
were constructed with large palisades, made of 
the trunks of trees set upright in the earth, 
and of an equal hight with the curtains; the 
sides of the bastions measured about forty feet 
each, the outhnes of which are still distinctly 
marked in the earth where they stood. Con- 
venient dwelling-houses for the officers were 
built in each bastion, with two rooms at least 
twenty feet square. An arsenal was built, near 
the center of the fort, of logs covered with 
earth, for the protection of the powder, and 
was a kind of homh-proof structure. The main 
gate was placed on the side next the river, and 
a sally-port on that looking toward the hill, 
which is distant about eighty rods. 

In the center of that line of barracks which 
stood in the curtain next the Muskingum, and 
which was probably the guard-house, there arose 
a square tower like a cupola, in which was 
stationed the sentry. Cannon were mounted 
in the bastions — four and six-pounders — so as 



DESCRIPTION OF FOET HARMAR. 217 

to rake the curtains in case of an assault. The 
main or water gate was at least fifty feet from 
the edge of the second bank of the river, whence 
the surface gradually sloped down about eight 
feet to the first bank, similar to what noAV is 
seen above the ferry. On this first bank or 
bottom stood tln-ee large log buildings, which 
were occupied by the artisans of the fort as 
blacksmith's, wheelwright's, and carpenter's 
shops ; a few yards beyond these buildings 
was the verge of the river bank. All this 
original space between the river and the fort 
had been washed away some years since by 
the crumbling of the loose earth, against which 
the waters of the Oliio rushed with great vio- 
lence durino; the times of hio;h floods. At this 
period the old well, which was dug in the mid- 
dle of the works, is seen projecting from the 
upright face of the bank from the gradual waste 
of fifty years, and has partly tumbled down the 
slope; in a few years more it will all be gone. 
Shots of four and six pounds are still picked 



218 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

up in the soil, and were probably buried when 
the troops under General Harmar left the place 
in the year 1790. In the rear of the fort, but 
close to the walls, were laid out nice gardens, 
and cultivated by the soldiers; in these were 
grown many varieties of culinary vegetables, 
and very superior peaches, planted by Major 
Doughty. At that time the virgin soil pro- 
duced fruit from the wood of three years' 
growth. A fine variety of peach is still known 
about Marietta by the name of "the Doughty 
peach." The Major was a tasteful horticul- 
turist as well as a brave soldier. 

This continual crumbling of the banks has 
widened the mouth of the Muskingum River 
more than two hundred feet; the effect of 
which has been that a dry sand-bar or island 
now occupies the spot where once, previous to 
the building of the fort, the water in the Sum- 
mer months was ten or twelve feet deep, with 
a smooth rock bottom. The huge sycamore 
trees, as they reclined over the water on the 



DESCRIPTION OF FORT HATIMAR. 219 

opposite shores, nearly touched their tops; and 
to a person passing hastily by in the middle 
of the Ohio the mouth of the Muskingum would 
be hardly noticed, so deeply ^vas it enshrouded 
by these giants of the forest. 

About the year 1800 there was found in the 
mouth of the Muskingum, by a boy who was 
bathing, a plate of lead of several pounds 
w^eight, on which was engraven a Latin in- 
scription, indicating that formal possession was 
taken of the country in the name of the king 
of France ; but whether by Louis XIV or XV, 
or in what year, my informant had forgQtten, 
although it was found by one of his own sons. 
It would have been a very interesting relic, 
but was unfortunately destro^^ed several years 
since by being melted and cast into rifle bul- 
lets. It seems that this was a common mode 
of taking possession of a new country by the 
early discoverers ; the leaden tablet being cither 
fastened to a large wooden cross set up on the 
shore, or else 4hrown into the mouth of the 



220 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

stream. Several tragical events transpired 
during the war in the vicinity of the fort; 
among others, the one in which the late Gov- 
ernor Meigs was an actor is worthy of being 
recited among the contributions to the early 
history of the Valley of the Ohio. 

THE ESCAPE OF R. J. MEIGS, ESQ. 

During the whole war it was customary for 
the inmates of all the garrisons to cultivate 
considerable fields of corn and other vegetables 
near the walls of their defenses ; although a 
very, hazardous pursuit, it was preferable to 
starvation. For a part of the time no pro- 
visions could be obtained from the older settle- 
ments above on the Monongahela and Ohio; 
sometimes from scarcity among the settlers 
themselves; and was procured at great hazard 
from the attack of the Indians, who watched 
the river for the capture of boats. Another 
reason was the want of money, many of the 
early inhabitants having spent a large share of 



THE ESCAPE OF R. J. MEIGS, ESQ. 221 

their funds in the journey to Oliio, and for tlie 
purchase of lands ; so that necessity, the mother 
of many good and many bad things, compelled 
them to plant their fields. The war having 
commenced so soon after their arrival, and at a 
period entirely unexpected — as a formal treaty 
had been made with the Indian tribes at Mari- 
etta in 1789 — and no stores being laid up for 
future use, it fell upon them quite unprepared. 
So desperate were their circumstances at one 
period that serious thoughts were entertained 
of evacuating the country by many of the 
leading men of the colony. 

In this state of affairs Mr. Meigs, then a 
young lawyer, and but recently married, was 
forced to lay aside the gown, and take up, 
like Cincinnatus, the sword and the plow; 
although at that time but little plowing was 
done, as much of the corn was raised by plant- 
ing the rich loose soil among the stumps, after 
burning off the logs and brush. Even by this 
simple process large crops were invariably pro- 



222 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

duced; so that nearly all the implements needed 
by the farmer were the ax and the hoe. 

Early in June, 1792, it so happened that 
Mr. Meigs, whose residence was in "Campus 
Martins," had been at work in a field of corn 
which he had planted on the west side of the 
Muskingum, in the vicinity of Fort Harmar. 
Having finished the labor of the day, just be- 
fore night, he with his companion, Joseph Sy- 
monds, and a black boy, an apprentice, whom 
he had brought with him from Connecticut, set 
out on their return to the garrison. Aftjer 
leaving the field there was a considerable piece 
of forest to pass through between the "clear- 
ing" and the spot where their canoe was fast- 
ened to the shore, opposite the fort where they 
dwelt. Symonds and the boy were unarmed; 
Mr. Meigs carried a small fowling-piece, which 
he had taken to the field for the purpose of 
shooting a wild turkey, which bird at that day 
abounded in such immense numbers as would 
hardly be^ credited at this day. Flocks of sev- 



THE ESCAPE OF R. J. MEIGS, ESQ. ±2'6 

eral hundred individuals were not uncommon in 
the Autumn, and of a size and fatness that 
Avoukl have excited the admiration of an epi- 
cure of any period of the workl — even of 
Apicus himself. Meeting, however, with no 
turkeys, he had discharged his gun at a 
squirrel. 

Just at this juncture two Indians, who had 
been for some time watching their movements, 
sprung into the path behind them, and unper- 
ceived fired and shot Symonds through the 
shoulder. He, being a superior swimmer, 
rushed down the bank and into the Mus- 
kingum River, when, turning on his back, he 
was enabled to keep himself on the surface 
till he had floated down near to Fort Ilarmar, 
where he was taken up by the soldiers in a 
canoe. His w^ound, although a dangerous one, 
was healed, and I knew him twenty years 
after. The black boy followed Symonds into 
the water as far as he could wade; being, how- 
ever, no swimmer, he was unable to get out 



224 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

of the reach of the Indian who shot at them, 
but was seized and dragged on shore. The 
Indians were very desirous of making him a 
prisoner, and taking him along with them, 
while he as obstinately refused, and made so 
much resistance, as they tried to drag him 
along, that finding they should by longer delay 
be in danger themselves from the rangers at 
the garrison, who were firing at them from 
the opposite shore, they reluctantly tomahawked 
and scalped him. 

From some accident it seems that only one 
of the Indian warriors was armed with a rifle; 
the other had only a tomahawk and knife. 
After Symonds was shot Mr. Meigs imme- 
diately faced about in order to escape to the 
fort. The warrior armed with his hatchet had 
placed himself between him and this refuge, 
and cut ofi" his retreat. Clubbing his gun, 
he rushed upon the Indian, aiming a blow at 
his head, which the Indian returned with his 
hatchet. From the rapidity of the movement 



THE ESCAPE OF R. J. MEIGS, ESQ. 225 

neither of them were much injured, although it 
staggered them considerably, but not so much 
as to bring either to the ground. Instantly 
recovering from the shock, Mr. Meigs pursued 
his course to the fort, with the Indian close at 
his heels. He was in the vigor of his life, and 
had by previous practice become a very swift 
runner. His foe was also very fleet, and among 
the most active of their warriors, as such only 
were sent into the settlements on marauding 
excursions. The race continued for the distance 
of sixty or eighty rods with little advantage on 
either side, w^hen Mm Meigs gradually increased 
his distance ahead, and leaping across a small 
run which intersected the path, the Indian 
stopped, threw his hatchet, which narrowly 
missed its object, and gave up the chase with 
one of those fierce yells which rage and dis- 
appointment both served to sharpen. So shrill 
and loud was the cry that it was distinctly 
heard at both the forts. 

About eight years since an Indian tomahawk 
15 



226 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

was plowed up near this very spot, and was 
most probably the one thrown at Mr. Meigs, 
as the pursuit from Fort Harmar was so imme- 
diate on hearing the shots and the Indian war- 
cry that he had no time to search for it. With 
the scalp of the poor black boy the Indians 
ascended the abrupt side of the hill which 
overlooked the garrison, and, shouting defiance 
to their foes, escaped into the thick forest, 
where pursuit would have been hopeless. The 
excitement was very great in the garrisons, and 
taught the inmates a useful lesson — that of 
being better armed and more on their guard 
when they ventured out on their agricultural 
avocations. 

Had Mr. Meigs tried any other expedient 
than that of facing and rushing instantly upon 
his enemy, he must inevitably have lost his life. 
On his right was the river; on his left a very 
steep and high hill; beyond him the pathless 
forest; and between him and the fort his In- 
dian foes. To his sudden and unexpected 



DESCRIPTION OF CAMPUS MARTIUS. 227 

assault, to his dauntless and intrepid manner, 
and above all his activity in the race, he un- 
doubtedly owed his life. He, however, lived to 
see this infant colony grow into a great State, 
and to share largely and deservedly in his 
country's confidence by holding some of the 
most honorable posts in her power to bestow. 

DESCRIPTION OF CAMPUS MARTIUS. 

This fort or stockaded garrison was built at 
Marietta by the Ohio Company, under the 
direction of General Rufus Putnam. At the 
period of the landing of the first settlers, on 
the 7th of April, 1788, the ground on which 
it stood, and the whole adjacent region, was 
covered with a thick growth of forest trees. 
The plan of the garrison was made, and the 
preparation of materials commenced, soon after; 
but it was not finally completed till near the 
time of the Indian war in 1790. The walls 
formed a regular parallelogram, the sides of 
which were equal, and one hundred and eighty 



228 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

feet in length. At each corner was erected a 
strong bastion or block-house, surmounted by a 
tower. The bastions were twenty feet square, 
and projected ten feet beyond the curtains or 
main walls of the fort; the upper stories of 
which projected several feet over the lower, 
so as to give the occupants the command of a 
raking fire on their assailants. The interme- 
diate curtains were built up with dwelling- 
houses made of hewn logs. The whole was 
two stories high, and covered with good shingle 
roofs. Convenient chimneys were built of bricks 
for cooking and warming the rooms. In the 
west and south fronts were strong gateways, 
and over the one looking to the river was a 
belfry. Running from corner to corner of the 
block-houses was a row of palisades sloping 
outward, and twenty feet in advance of these a 
row of very strong and stout palisades set up- 
right in the earth. Gateways also led tlirough 
these. Each bastion was mounted with a small 
piece of ordnance, so much elevated as to 



DESCRIPTION OF CAMPUS MARTIUS. 229 

command the adjacent plain; loop-holes were 
made at convenient distances for musketry. 

The dwelling-houses occupied about thirty 
feet each, and were of the same width as the 
bastions, and afforded sufficient room for the 
accommodation of forty or fifty families, and 
did actually contain from three to four hundred 
men, w^omen, and children during the Indian 
war. At the commencement of the war the 
block-houses or bastions were occupied as fol- 
lows: one by the family of General St. Clair; 
one for the holding of courts and for religious 
worship. The office of pastor was filled by the 
Rev. Daniel Story during the war, and for 
several years after that period. The first civil 
courts ever assembled in Ohio were held at 
Marietta. 

A third bastion was occupied for offices by 
the directors of the Ohio Company, and a 
fourth for private families. During the war 
a regular military corps was organized, and 
sentries continually posted in the towers over 



230 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

the bastions. The area within the walls formed 
a fine parade-ground, in the center of which 
was a well, eighty feet in depth, for the supply 
of water to the inhabitants in case of a siege. 
A large sun-dial stood for many years in the 
square, and gave note of the march of time; 
it is yet preserved as a relic of the old fort. 
The whole formed a very strong work, and 
reflected great credit on the head that planned 
it. The fort was in a manner impregnable to 
the attack of Indians, and none but a regular 
•army with cannon could have subdued it. The 
hights across the Muskingum, it is true, com- 
manded and looked down upon the defenses 
of Campus Martins, but there was no enemy 
to fear in a condition to take possession of 
this advantage. 

The fort stood on the verge of that beautiful 
plain overlooking the Muskingum River, and on 
which those celebrated remains of antiquity were 
erected, probably for a similar purpose, by that 
ancient and wonderful people, whose fate yet 



DESCRIPTION OF CAMPUS MARTIUS. 231 

remains involved in obscurity. From a com- 
parison of the crania, or skulls, they have re- 
cently been ascertained to be of the same race 
with the ancient Peruvians. The heads of this 
ingenious people, the remains of whose industry 
and skill are scattered all over the valley of 
the Ohio, are entirely different from those of 
the Indian races of the West; having much 
narrower palatal bones, and the organ of con- 
structiveness well developed, while those of 
combativeness and destructiveness are small. 
Thus much to the credit of phrenology. The 
ground descended into ravines on the north and 
south sides of the fort. On the 'west was an 
abrupt descent to the river bottom; while the 
east passed out on to the level plain. On this 
the ground was entii*ely cleared of timber, to 
the distance of a rifle shot, so as to afford no 
shelter to a hidden foe. Extensive fields of 
corn were planted in the midst of the girdled 
and deadened trees beyond. The appearance 
of the garrison from without was grand and 



232 EARLY HISTORY OP THE NORTH-WEST. 

imposing; at a little distance bearing a striking 
resemblance to one of the armed palaces, or 
castles o*f the feudal ages. 

Between the fort and the river, on the rich 
alluvions, were laid out convenient vegetable 
gardens for the use of the inhabitants and the 
officers of the Ohio Company. On the shore 
of the Muskingum was built a substantial tim- 
ber wharf, at which lay moored a fine cedar- 
built barge for twelve oars, constructed by Cap- 
tain I. Devol, with a number of perogues and 
light canoes of the country. In these boats, 
during the war, most of the intercourse was 
carried on between the settlements of the com- 
pany, and the more remote towns above on the 
Ohio River. Travel by land was very hazard- 
ous, and besides there were no roads or bridges 
across the creeks. 

CHARACTER OF THE PIONEERS. 

"While many of the early settlements in the 
West were made up from the illiterate and the 



THE FIRST PREACHER IN OHIO. 233 

rude, tlic colony at Marietta, like those of some 
of the ancient Greeks, carried with it the sciences 
and the arts ; and although placed on the front- 
iers, amidst the- howling and the savage wilder- 
ness, exposed to many dangers and privations, 
there flowed in the veins of its Httle community 
some of the best blood of the country; and it 
enrolled many men of highly-cultivated minds 
and exalted intellects." The directors of the 
Ohio Company were men of sqund sense, and 
took extensive and liberal views of public good, 
as may be seen in the ample provision made for 
the support of schools and the Gospel. One of 
the first official seals engraved in Marietta had 
for its legend, " Support religion and learning." 

THE FIRST PREACHER IN OHIO. 

Soon after the organization of the Ohio Com- 
pany, at Boston, Massachusetts, in the year 
1787, it seems that the enlightened men who 
directed its concerns began to think of making 
arrangements for the support of the Gospel and 



234 EARLY HISTORY OP THE NORTH-WEST. 

the instruction of youth in their new colony 
about to be established in the western wilder- 
ness. Accordingly a resolution was passed 
at a meeting of the directors and agents, on 
the 7th of March, in the year 1788, at Provi- 
dence, in Rhode Island, for the support of the 
Gospel and a teacher of youth; in consequence 
of which the Rev. Manasseh Cutler, one of the 
company directors, in the course of that year 
engaged the Rev. Daniel Story, then preaching 
at Worcester, Massachusetts, to go to the West 
as chaplain to the new settlements commenced 
at Marietta. After a tedious and laborious 
journey across the Alleghany Mountains, Mr. 
Story arrived at Marietta in the Spring of the 
year 1789, and commenced his ministerial la- 
bors as an evangelist. The settlements were 
new and situated at various points, some of 
them a considerable distance from Marietta; 
nevertheless, he visited them in rotation, in con- 
formity with the arrangement of the directors, 
by which he was to preach about one-third of 



THE FIRST PREACHER IN OHIO. 235 

the time at the settlements of Wolf Creek and 
Belpre. 

During the Indian war, from 1791 to 1795, 
he preached the larger portion of the time in 
the north-west block-house of Campus Martins. 
The upper room in that house was fitted up 
with benches and a rude, simple desk, so as to 
accommodate an audience of a hundred or more. 
The room was also used for a school, which was 
first laught by Major Anselm Tupper, a son of 
General Benjamin Tupper, a highly-gifted and 
well-educated man, who had served with much 
credit in the army of the Revolution. During 
this period, a committee appointed by the di- 
rectors to report on the religious and literary 
instruction of the youth, resolved that one 
hundred and eighty dollars be paid from the 
funds of the company to aid the new settlement 
in paying a teacher, with the condition that 
Marietta support a teacher one year, Belpre 
seven months, and Waterford three months. If 
they complied with that, this sum was to be 



236 EARLY HISTOEY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

divided among tliem in proportion to the time. 
Near the same period, twenty dollars were ap- 
propriated to pay Col. E. Battelle for religious 
instructions at Belpre. Colonel Battelle was a 
graduate of Cambridge University, and acted 
as chaplain to the settlement during the Indian 
war, reading the Church service regularly each 
Sabbath to the inmates of Farmer's Castle. 
The meetings were held in the south-east block- 
house, where he resided. These testimonials 
sufficiently prove the interest the Ohio Company 
felt for the spiritual welfare, as well as the 
temporal comfort of the colonists. Mr. Story 
also preached occasionally at a large room in 
the upper story of a frame house in the stock- 
ade or garrison at "the Point," being at the 
junction of the Muskingum with the Ohio, on 
the left bank ; Fort Harmar being on the oppo- 
site shore. At periods when the Indians were 
quiet, he visited and preached at the settlements 
of Belpre and Wolf Creek, fifteen and twenty 
miles from Marietta. These pastoral visits were 



THE FIRST PREACHER IN OHIO. 237 

made by water in a log canoe, propelled by 
the stout arms and willing hearts of the early 
pioneers. 

In the year 1796 he united and established 
a Congregational Church, composed of persons 
residing in Marietta, Bclpre, Waterford and 
Vienna in Virginia. In 1797 he visited his 
native State, and remained there till he was 
called to the pastoral charge of the Church he 
had thus collected in the wilderness. He was 
ordained the 15th of August, 1797, in Danvers, 
Massachusetts, there being no ministers to per- 
form that office west of the mountains, to the 
care of the Church in Marietta and Vicinity. 
This relation continued between Mr. Story and 
his Church till the 15th of March, 1804, when 
he was dismissed at his own request, his health 
having become too much impaired for him to 
perform the labors of pastor any longer. 

Mr. Story was a native of the town of 
Boston, State of Massachusetts, and graduated 
at Dartmouth College in 1780. He was in the 



238 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WEST. 

ministry some years before lie came to Ma- 
rietta, and when he was selected by Dr. Cutler 
to come to the West the choice was much 
approved by those who knew him. In coming 
td Marietta, however, Mr. Story certainly sac- 
rificed his interest and his comfort What 
money he possessed at that time was invested 
in Ohio lands, previous tt) coming out, with 
the expectation of reasonable support from the 
Ohio Company, till the rents of the ministerial 
lands, set apart for the support of the Gospel, 
should come into use or be available; but this 
was prevented by the Indian war, and no funds 
were derived from this source till about the 
year 1800. The support from the funds of 
the Ohio Company was continued for only two 
years, their affairs being somewhat deranged by 
the Indian war; the expense of which to their 
treasury being upward of eleven thousand dol- 
lars. The inhabitants were generally much im- 
poverished from the same cause, and probably 
his receipts for preaching, from the year 1789 



THE FIRST PREACHER IN OHIO. 239 

to the time of his ordination in 1797, could not 
have paid his expenses for board and clothing. 
He was obliged to draw upon his former earn- 
ings by the sale of some of his lands. However, 
the hospitality of one or two kind Christian 
friends, who gave him a welcome seat at their 
tables during a part of this period, relieved 
him from some of his difficulties. At his death 
the proceeds from the sale of his remaining 
lands were insufficient to discharge all the 
debts incurred while laboring in the new set- 
tlements. 

In person Mr. Story was rather tall and 
slender, and quite brisk and active in his move- 
ments; his manners easy, with a pleasant ad- 
dress; cheerful and animated in conversation; 
and always a welcome guest in the families he 
visited. His sermons were practical; logically 
and methodically written, after the manner of 
that day; and were said to be fully equal in 
matter and manner to those of the first preach- 
ers in New England. In prayer he greatly 



240 EARLY HISTORY OP THE NORTH-WEST. 

excelled, both in propriety and diversity of sub- 
ject, as well as in beauty of language. He was 
never married, but lived a single life, after the 
manner and advice of St. Paul. 

Placed in the midst of a people continually 
trembling for the safety of their lives, filled 
with anxiety for the support of their families, 
and surrounded by the careless manners of the 
soldiery, it is not to be expected that much 
could be done under such circumstances by a 
humble minister of the Gospel in advancing the 
spiritual condition of the people; nevertheless, 
he did what he could for the support of the 
cause in which he was engaged, and his name 
is still held in respectful remembrance by the 
few living remnants of the early settlers of 
Marietta. He died the 30th day of December, 
1804, aged forty-nine years. 



JUH 30)948 



